Single Issue: $1.00 Publication Mail Agreement No. 40030139 CATHOLIC JOURNAL Vol. 93 No. 40 April 6, 2016 Grace and mercy Risen Jesus shares immortal life with us “Mercy is the offering of love to the broken, by the By Cindy Wooden and in silent reflection. said Easter should give people the our brothers and sisters.” broken,” Junno Arocho Esteves After mass, before giving his courage to “blaze trails of recon - says Leah solemn blessing, Pope Francis ciliation with God and with all — EASTER , page 2 Perrault. VATICAN CITY (CNS) — It’s not a Easter is a feast of hope, a cele - massive bration of God’s mercy and a call undertak - to pray for and assist all who suf - ing. “Often fer, Pope Francis said before giv - the person ing his solemn blessing urbi et who offers mercy doesn’t orbi (to the city and the world). even know what it is The risen Jesus “makes us they are doing.” sharers of his immortal life and — page 3 enables us to see with his eyes of Purim love and compassion those who hunger and thirst, strangers and It’s often called the Jewish prisoners, the marginalized and Mardi Gras, when people the outcast, the victims of oppres - dress up and make noise sion and violence,” the pope said and celebrate Esther, March 27 after celebrating Easter whose bravery saved the morning mass. Jews from extermination Easter in Rome dawned bright in ancient Persia. and sunny; in St. Peter’s Square, — page 3 the steps leading up to the basili - ca were turned into an abundant Politics of genocide garden with thousands of tulips, daffodils and flowering bushes. Widespread slaughter, On Easter morning, the pope expulsion, kidnapping and does not give a homily. Instead, CNS/ L’Osservatore Romano rape of Christians, Yezidis with hands clasped in prayer and POPE EASTER BLESSING — Pope Francis greets the crowd during his Easter message and blessing urbi and other ethnic and head bowed, he led the tens of et orbi (to the city and the world) delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican religious minorities in thousands of people in the square March 27. territory controlled by the Islamic State may well constitute a genocide, but TRC calls churches to integrity and conversion the Canadian government will not join a growing By Kiply Lukan Yaworski orous process of drafting, discus - tual or cultural abuse. The way in peoples and often identified by the international movement and sion and consultation, led by the which the whole residential terms ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ and formally call it a genocide SASKATOON — Two docu - Canadian Conference of Catholic school system was geared toward ‘terra nullius .’ ” before there is a ments released March 29 will not Bishops’ Commission for Justice assimilation has been revealed. The document notes “that now third-party investigation. be the last of the Catholic Church’s and Peace, chaired by Bolen. We also have a new understand - is an appropriate time to issue a — page 3 responses to the Truth and Rec - The Truth and Reconciliation ing of how the legacy of the public statement in response to Think Indigenous onciliation Commission or the process that has taken place schools continues to have an the errors and falsehoods perpetu - TRC Calls to Action, says Bishop around the legacy of residential impact on individuals, families ated, often by Christians, during The third annual Think Donald Bolen of Saskatoon. schools has invited a “deep awak - and communities, and is connect - and following the so-called Age Indigenous Education “The bishops look at this as a ening” from Catholics and from ed to many of the challenges of Discovery,” and rejects how conference was held March long and ongoing process. I think all Canadians, Bolen said. faced by indigenous people in our these legal constructs have been 15 - 18, beginning with we see the TRC Calls to Action “Catholics have learned much country today,” Bolen said. used to disenfranchise indigenous the first annual Think as an invitation to engagement, so more about our culpability in a “I am grateful that the Truth peoples. Indigenous Youth we are not simply checking things very flawed Indian residential and Reconciliation Commission In the second document, the Conference at Nutana off a list; we are looking for ways school system,” he said, noting does not write the churches off. signatories express their support Collegiate in Saskatoon to be engaged,” said Bolen. that some 60 per cent of the gov - Instead, they call us to integrity. for the United Nations Declaration and continuing with The two documents were pub - ernment-mandated schools were They call us to own the sins and on the Rights of Indigenous workshops, speakers, lished in response to TRC Calls to run by Catholic entities. mistakes of our past and to con - Peoples. They affirm that “its spir - tours, panels and a banquet. Action #46, #48 and #49. Leaders “Through the TRC process we version. They call us to action, to it can point a way forward to rec - — page 6 of four Canadian Catholic organi - have heard more clearly than ever stand in solidarity with indigenous onciliation between indigenous zations representing bishops, insti - before how indigenous children people, to address wrongs.” and non-indigenous people in Mercy masterpiece tutes of consecrated life, indige nous were taken from their homes, The first of the two texts “con - Canada.” people, and other laity signed the often far from their homes, some - siders and repudiates illegitimate The Catholic response to TRC If Pope Francis wanted a documents on the Feast of St. times forcibly. We have heard ter - concepts and principles used by Call to Action #48 to support the single image to illustrate Joseph (patron saint of Canada). rible accounts of sexual abuse and Europeans to justify the seizure of the special The texts were prepared after a rig - physical abuse, and also of spiri - land previously held by indige nous — DECLARATION , page 5 Year of Mercy that is the cur - Righting wrongs begins with ‘truthful history’ rent focus of his min - By Deborah Gyapong detailed documents responding to Action #48 that asked faith com - educate themselves about these istry and, Calls to Action #48 and #49. munities to show how they plan to issues,” said Archbishop Murray indeed, the OTTAWA (CCN) — Canadian The Catholic response to the bring their policies in line with the Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas, theme at bishops are calling on Catholic Truth and Reconciliation Com mis- 2007 United Nations Declaration whose diocese is made up of 83 the heart of his pontificate, institutions to tell “a truthful his - sion’s Calls to Action are “a cou - on the Rights of In digenous People per cent First Nations and Métis he could do no better than tory” of the church’s interaction ple of steps in a journey that’s (UNDRIP), and Call to Action #49 peoples. choosing an under-appreci - with indigenous peoples. going to take a long time,” says that asked for a repudiation of the One place to start is by making ated masterpiece by On March 29, the Canadian Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael so-called Doctrine of Discovery, sure Catholic institutions tell a the thrilling Italian artist Conference of Catholic Bishops, Miller. and Terra Nullius , that gave “first truthful history of the encounter known as Caravaggio. the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Miller was among 30 bishops, takers” or “discoverers” the right to with indigenous peoples, such as — page 8 Council, the Canadian Religious religious, and lay representatives of seize land belonging to indigenous the effects of the residential Conference and the Canadian Catholic organizations at a March peoples. school system, and the impact of Catholic Organization for Devel - 14 meeting in Ottawa to reflect on “I just hope more of our op ment and Peace released two a response to the TRC’s Call to church and Canadians in general — CHATLAIN , page 4 2 Prairie Messenger INTERNATIONAL NEWS April 6, 2016 Actions speak louder than words, pope tells refugees

By Junno Arocho Esteves Fisichella, the main organizer of there are “arms traffickers who the Vatican’s Year of Mercy ini - want blood, not peace.” ROME (CNS) — In a moving tiatives, as well as the directors of “In this moment, when I do gesture of brotherhood and peace, the refugee centre. Jesus’ same gesture — to wash Pope Francis washed the feet of He was also introduced to the feet of you 12 — all of us are several refugees, including Mus - three residents who would serve making this gesture of brother - lims, Hindus and Copts. as his interpreters: Ibrahim from hood. And all of us can say: We Gestures, like Jesus washing Afghanistan, Boro from Mali and are diverse, we are different, we the feet of his disciples, “speak Segen from Eritrea. One of the have different religions and cul - louder than words,” he said dur - refugees handed the pope a mark - tures, but we are brothers and we ing the Holy Thursday Mass of er, which the pontiff used to sign a want to live in peace,” he said. the Lord’s Supper March 24. banner depicting the flags of 26 Acknowledging the suffering Coming together, he added, is nations, representing the countries endured by the refugees, Pope another gesture meant to show a of origin of the centre’s guests. Francis asked them to pray in desire to live in peace as brothers In his brief, off-the-cuff homi - “their own religious language” so and sisters despite people’s differ - ly, the pope said there were two that there may “always be broth - ent cultural and religious back - distinct gestures in the day’s erhood and goodness.” grounds. Gospel: Jesus serving and wash - After his homily, the pope Hundreds of refugees were out- ing the feet of his disciples and removed his vestments and put on side hoping to catch a glimpse of Judas receiving money by Jesus’ a large white garment tied over the pope as he made his way into enemies to betray him. his alb. He kneeled before each of the courtyard of the Centre for “Today as well, there are two the 12 people, washed each per - Asylum Seekers at Castel nuovo di gestures. All of us here, (coming) son’s foot slowly and dried it. CNS/ L’Osservatore Romano Porto , about 25 kilometres north together — Muslims, Hindus, The refugees barely contained POPE WASHES FEET OF REFUGEES — Pope Francis washes the of Rome. Catholics, Copts, Evangelicals — their emotions, tears streaming foot of a refugee during Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Prior to his arrival, the pope but (being) brothers, children of down their faces as the pope bent the Centre for Asylum Seekers in Castelnuovo di Porto , about 25 kilo - sent some Easter presents for the the same God who want to live in low and kissed their feet. A young metres north of Rome March 24. The pope washed and kissed the feet centre’s guests: 200 chocolate peace,” he said. mother wiped her tears as the of refugees, including Muslims, Hindus and Copts. Easter eggs, a wooden chess board, However, recalling the recent pope gazed at her and reached out and several autographed soccer terrorist attack in Brussels, the to touch her baby. in St. Peter’s Basilica. living together as brothers and sis - balls and baseballs. pope said there was a second ges - The evening mass was the Before going around and greet - ters despite their different cul - After getting out of a blue ture made by those who want second of two Holy Thursday ing each of the centre’s residents tures, religions and traditions. four-door vehicle, the pope was war. Like Judas, he said, behind liturgies for Pope Francis; the individually, Pope Francis asked This beauty, he said, “has a greeted by Archbishop Rino those who committed the attacks first was a morning chrism mass them to remember the beauty of name: peace and love.” Easter is the celebration of hope, pope says; soften hardened hearts

Continued from page 1 Lee, the South Korean ambassador our rancor and the boulders of our to Italy, who took the baptismal past.” Speaking about Christ’s power name, Stephen. The ambassador’s While problems will always over death and sin, the pope wife, taking the name Stella, was remain, he said, Jesus’ resurrec - prayed that the Lord would touch also baptized. The other catechu - tion is a sure foundation of places in the globe scarred by mens came from Italy, Albania, Christian hope and not “mere war, terrorism, poverty and envi - Cameroon, India and China. optimism, nor a psychological ronmental destruction. One by one, the catechumens attitude or desire to be coura - “The risen Christ points out approached the pope who asked geous.” paths of hope to beloved Syria, a them if they wished to receive The Holy Spirit “does not re - country torn by a lengthy con - baptism. After responding, “Yes, move evil with a magic wand. But flict, with its sad wake of I do,” they lowered their heads as he pours into us the vitality of life, destruction, death, contempt for the pope, using a silver shell, which is not the absence of prob - humanitarian law and the break - poured water over their fore - lems, but the certainty of being down of civil concord,” the pope heads. loved and always forgiven by said. “To the power of the risen Confirming the 12 during the Christ, who for us has conquered Lord we en trust the talks now in vigil, the pope asked the cardi - sin, death and fear,” he said. course.” nals, bishops and priests present Christians are called to awak - He prayed that the power of to join him in raising their hands en the same hope in the hearts of the Resurrection would “over - and praying over the newly bap - others, Pope Francis said. With - come hardened hearts and pro - CNS/Paul Haring tized so that God would send out such witness the church risks mote a fruitful encounter of peo - GOOD FRIDAY AT THE COLOSSEUM — A woman holds a cross forth the Holy Spirit upon them. be coming “an international orga - ples and cultures,” particularly in during the Way of the Cross presided at by Pope Francis outside the At the beginning of the vigil, nization full of followers and Iraq, Yemen, Libya and the Holy ancient Colosseum in Rome March 25. after blessing the Easter fire, good rules, yet incapable of offer - Land. Pope Francis entered a darkened ing the hope for which the world “May the Lord of life also “O Cross of Christ, today too take us by the hand to bring us basilica, gently illuminated by the longs.” accompany efforts to attain a we see you in the faces of chil - out of our anguish,” he said in his light of the Easter candle. definitive solution to the war in dren, of women and people, homily. “This is the first stone to In his homily, reflecting on the Ukraine, inspiring and sustain - worn out and fearful, who flee be moved aside this night: the Easter account from the Gospel ing initiatives of humanitarian from war and violence and who lack of hope which imprisons us of St. Luke, the pope noted how aid, including the liberation of often only find death and many within ourselves. May the Lord the disciples doubted the testimo - those who are detained,” he Pilates who wash their hands,” free us from this trap, from being ny of the women returning from prayed. he said. Christians without hope, who live the empty tomb. On Easter and throughout the Two days later, celebrating the as if the Lord were not risen, as if Peter, he said, was the first of Holy Week liturgies that preceded Resurrection, Pope Francis said our problems were the centre of the men to rise and run to the it, Pope Francis showed special the Easter message “invites us not our lives. tomb, choosing not to “succumb concern for the fate of refugees to forget those men and women “Today is the celebration of to the somber atmosphere of and migrants fleeing violence and seeking a better future, an ever our hope, the celebration of this those days, nor was he over - poverty and for Christians facing more numerous throng of mi- truth: nothing and no one will whelmed by his doubts.” persecution in the Middle East grants and refugees — including ever be able to separate us from “This marked the beginning of and other parts of the world. many children — fleeing from his love,” the pope said. Peter’s resurrection, the resurrec - At Rome’s Colosseum Good war, hunger, poverty and social “The Lord is alive and wants tion of his heart. Without giving Friday, after presiding over the injustice. All too often, these to be sought among the living,” in to sadness or darkness, he Stations of the Cross, the pope brothers and sisters of ours meet Pope Francis said. “After having made room for hope; he allowed offered a long meditation on how along the way death or, in any found him, each person is sent the light of God to enter into his Christ continues to be scorned, event, rejection by those who out by him to announce the Easter heart, without smothering it,” the tortured and crucified in suffering could offer them welcome and message, to awaken and resurrect pope said. people around the world. assistance.” hope in hearts burdened by sad - Like Peter and the women, he CNS/Ammar Awad, Reuters “O Cross of Christ,” he said Celebrating the Easter vigil ness, in those who struggle to added, Christians cannot discover GOOD FRIDAY IN JERU- March 25, “today too we see you March 26, Pope Francis said find meaning in life. This is so life by being “bereft of hope” and SALEM — Worshippers carry a raised up in our sisters and broth - Easter is a celebration of hope, necessary today.” “imprisoned within ourselves” cross into the Church of the Holy ers killed, burned alive, throats one that must begin within the During the Easter vigil, Pope but, instead, must allow Christ to Sepulcher during the Good slit and decapitated by barbarous hearts of each Christian. Francis baptized eight women and bring life and break open their Friday procession in Jerusalem’s blades amid cowardly silence.” “Christ wants to come and four men, including Yong-joon tombs, sealed by “the stones of Old City March 25. April 6, 2016 CANADIAN NEWS Prairie Messenger 3 Call for genocide getting tangled up in politics

By Michael Swan anything more than it is already The Catholic Register doing in co-ordinating a bombing campaign against the Islamic State. TORONTO (CCN) — “Ultimately the full facts must Widespread slaughter, expulsion, be brought to light by an indepen - kidnapping and rape of Christians, dent investigation and through Yezidis and other ethnic and reli - formal legal determination made gious minorities in territory con - by a competent court or tribunal,” trolled by the Islamic State may said Kerry. well constitute a genocide, but the Kerry’s statement is “a historic Canadian government will not join first step towards addressing the a growing international move ment human cost of IS’s atrocities,” said and formally call it a genocide a statement from the United States before there is a proper, third-party Holocaust Memorial Museum in investigation. Washington. But the museum, a “Canada is appalled by the major centre for genocide research, atrocities,” Global Affairs Canada wants more than just rhetoric. told The Catholic Register. “We “This finding of genocide believe that some of these show must not merely be an acknowl - the hallmarks of genocide.” edgement of their suffering. The United Nations High Com - Rather, it should serve as a call to missioner for Human Rights has action to protect and defend those said Daesh, as the self-proclaimed remaining populations from the Islamic State is sometimes called crimes that continue to be perpe - (though reportedly ISIS despises trated today,” it said. the word), may have committed CNS/Nawras Aamer, EPA The Catholic Near East Wel fare genocide, war crimes and crimes GENOCIDE DEBATE — Iraqi soldiers observe the evacuation of families from the recently recaptured Association in Canada is not inter - against humanity. Canada, along town of Zangura, Iraq, March 9. The Canadian government will not join a growing international move - ested in a debate over whether or with the United States, the Euro - ment and formally call the widespread slaughter of Christians, Yezidis and other ethnic and religious not the murderous, fake caliphate pean Par liament and the United minorities a genocide before there is a third-party investigation. in eastern Syria and western Iraq Nations, wants an “independent has committed genocide. investigation and that a legal deter - The Conservatives have been the Bishops’ Conferences of the United States Secretary of State “The issue is not the terminol - mination be made by a competent pushing Foreign Affairs Minister European Community general sec - John Kerry has formally and ogy,” said CNEWA Canada exec - court or tribunal,” said a Global Stephane Dion to declare a geno - retary Rev. Patrick Daley Feb. 4. pointedly used the word genocide. utive director Carl Hétu. “For us, Affairs spokesperson in an email. cide now. Shadow cabinet chair Pope Francis has spoken fre - “In my judgment, Daesh is as an agency, we feel this is an The United Nations Conven tion Jason Kenney has taken to de- quently about the atrocities in - responsible for genocide against empty debate. Daesh is danger - on the Prevention and Punishment scribing the Islamic State as a flicted on Middle East Christians. groups in areas under its control, ous. They’re killers. It’s clear of the Crime of Genocide defines “genocidal cult.” Last June he referred to “this including Yezidis, Christians and they need to be stopped. The genocide as deliberate acts to In Europe, Catholic bishops third world war” of terrorism and Shia Muslims. Daesh is genocidal actions of our own government “destroy, in whole or in part, a welcomed a motion passed by the how “a form of genocide is taking by self-proclamation, by ideology need to reflect that.” national, ethnical, racial or reli - European Parliament that classi - place, and it must end.” and by actions — in what it says, However, Aid To The Church gious group.” These acts can fied ethnic and religious cleansing The U.S. Commission on what it believes and what it In Need-Canada believes the g- include killing, causing bodily or by the Islamic State as genocide, International Religious Freedom does,” said Kerry on March 17. word needs to be applied now. mental harm, inflicting conditions but warned that calling it genocide has urged the American govern - But Kerry at this point isn’t intended to cause a group’s physi - must translate into action. ment to classify various minori - calling for the United States to do — SERIOUSNESS , page 5 cal destruction, imposing measures “Steps to prosecute criminals ties living under Islamic State to prevent births and forcibly and bring them to justice are also rule, including Muslim minori - Jews celebrate Purim at removing children. imperative,” said Commission of ties, as victims of genocide. Grace underlies mercy: Perrault Beth Jacob Synagogue By Frank Flegel wear costumes and masks depict - By Kiply Lukan Yaworski also the mother of three, an author super-abundant gift that has noth - ing the characters in the story. and a speaker, with a master’s ing to do with what we deserve, REGINA — It’s often called “We can’t tell who’s who any - SASKATOON — A spirituali - degree in pastoral theology from then we can understand that our the Jewish Mardi Gras, when peo - more, so it’s hard to discern the ty of mercy is the willingness to St. Michael’s College, Toronto. role in mercy — either giving it ple dress in costumes, make noise difference between good people love one another in our broken - Asking her listeners to share or receiving it — has very little to and celebrate Esther, whose brav - and bad people,” said Rabbi ness, Leah Perrault recently told a examples of times when they do with us.” Mercy begins and ery in ancient Persia saved the Jeremy Parnes following the read - crowd gathered at the Cathedral experienced or extended mercy, ends with God, she said. “We are Jews from extermination. Esther ing of the Megillah at Beth Jacob of the Holy Family for the third in Perrault noted that mercy is not able to show mercy because God is called to be queen in King Synagogue. a series of reflections for the Year necessarily a grandiose project. has given it to us first.” Xerxes’ court but unbeknownst to It’s also important at these of Mercy. “In my experience, mercy is Perrault cited a prayer from St. the king, she is a Jew. events to give money and gifts to not a massive undertaking, or Faustina Kowalska, the 20th-cen - The villain in the piece is the poor, said Parnes. “We give something that someone has cal - tury Polish nun who shared a mes - Haman, a senior functionary in gift baskets to seniors, shut-ins, culated for months in advance. sage about trusting in the divine the court of King Xerxes of food and money to poor people. Often the person who offers mercy of God: “Help me, O Lord, Persia. He’s royally ticked off that It’s quite common for people to go mercy doesn’t even know what it that my heart may be merciful so Mordecai, Esther’s cousin and from synagogue to synagogue and is they are doing. There is some that I myself may feel all the suf - caregiver in the unexplained even house to house. We dress in sense of kindness, some generosi - ferings of my neighbour. I will absence of any parentage, con - costume and they do as well so ty in the midst of need.” refuse my heart to no one. I will vinces the king the Jews don’t that nobody knows who is poor It is because we are the ones be sincere even with those who, I obey his laws, have their own and who is rich, so their dignity is most in need of mercy that we are know, will abuse my kindness. way of life and are not fit to be held in place, which is rather a capable of offering it, Perrault And I will lock myself up in the subjects of the king and should be nice way of doing things.” insisted, pointing out that mercy most merciful heart of Jesus.” exterminated, and the king agrees. It may be common practice in does not come from a place of Perrault noted that there is a Mordecai, on hearing this, con - larger centres but in Regina, power or condescension, but difference between knowing vinces Esther she should approach Parnes said, money and food is rather from shared brokenness. about God and knowing God. Too the king, a dangerous venture given to the Food Bank or the “We worship a God who chose often we mistake the idea of reli - without first being summoned, Salvation Army or other charities. to be broken, to be human, to be giosity or piety with having all and convince him not to proceed. “It may not be traditional, but it Leah Perrault crucified, so that he could relate the right answers, rather than She wins the day; the Jews are follows the same intent.” to our brokenness, and so ulti - being engaged in a relationship allowed to defend themselves, and Food and drink are also avail - “Mercy is the offering of love mately that we could receive that with Jesus. kill about 70,000 of their antago - able as part of the celebration, to the broken, by the broken,” mercy from him because he was Perrault explored the chal - nists. Haman is hanged for his including Hamentaschen , fruit- Perrault said March 6, during a one of us.” lenges of living out a spirituality efforts and all is well in Persia. filled cookies in the shape of the talk about the spirituality of mercy, Mercy does not stand in oppo - of mercy. The story is told in the reading tri-corner hat worn by Hamas. filled with stories of mercy in ordi - sition to truth or to justice, she “I am so good at making sure of the Megillah, which is really the The event was held March 23, nary life. stressed, but rather is “the free - mercy never reaches me,” she Book of Esther, and the fun comes the same evening as the debate Perrault recently began work - dom to experience the conse - said, describing her struggle with every time Haman’s name is men - between Sask. Party Leader Brad ing for Emmanuel Care, a health quences of our actions in the con - depression and moving beyond tioned. There are boos, hisses and Wall and NDP leader Cam care organization that oversees a text of love. the false idea that she had to earn the loud use of noise makers with Broten, which seemed to impact number of Catholic hospitals and “Grace underlies the whole the intent of drowning out the the number of people who turned care homes in the province. She is thing. If we understand grace as a — HOW MANY , page 7 mention of Haman’s name. Many out for the party. 4 Prairie Messenger CANADIAN NEWS April 6, 2016 Papal apology still uppermost in TRC Calls to Action

By Deborah Gyapong one of two that had a time limit, array of Protestant denomina - MacDonald said the Gospel was TRC Commissioner Marie Wilson tions, from the Anglican Church, preached to “make us like other OTTAWA (CCN) — A request said March 30 at an Ottawa news the United Church, the Presby - people.” to Pope Francis for an apology in conference. terian Church and the Lutheran The TRC report spoke of cul - Canada for the Catholic Church’s “We heard many survivors say, Church to the Salvation Army tural genocide against Canada’s role in Indian residential schools ‘My church has not apologized to and the Quakers, on Call to indigenous peoples and Wilson has gone to the Vatican. me,’ ” she said. Asked if an apol - Action #48 asking all faith com - said she had not been prepared “The pope has received this ogy from Pope Francis would be munities to bring their policies in to hear how often witnesses invitation, this request, from the enough, she responded, “I’m cer - line with the United Nations spoke of “spiritual abuse” at the First Nations,” said Apostolic tain it won’t be enough. It’s all Declaration on the Rights of schools. Nuncio Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi. just movement forward.” Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Wilson stressed the Calls to “He is considering it.” “No one thing will be perfect by March 31. Action were not issued “to make The Truth and Reconciliation for everyone,” she said. “But we Though organized by KAIROS, people comfortable,” or to repre - Commission’s call for the pope to have to keep trying.” no Catholic leaders were present. sent a “kinder, gentler assimila - apologize for Indian residential Wilson acknowledged many The Canadian Conference of tion.” schools on Canadian soil within a bishops and Catholic organizations Catholic Bishops, the Canadian The Calls to Action are “not year of the June 2015 publication have apologized over the years, Religious Conference and other optional,” she said. The TRC de- of the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action is and the structure of the Catholic Catholic organizations had pub - liberately made them “sound Church as a group of dioceses and lished their response to #48 the imperative.” entities rather than one national previous day. The Evangelical Wilson called the response of church has not permitted one Fellowship of Canada also released the faith communities “bold” and Canadian response. Many of the its response separately. “courageous.” CCN/D. Gyapong 7,000 witnesses the TRC heard “The churches are saying they “We, too, have been part of Marie Wilson wanted a “corporate response,” she will allow us to become what colonialization,” she said, and said. God called us to be,” said the through that have supported injured when people spoke ill of “We, all of us, have inherited Anglican Church of Canada’s “spiritual displacement.” the church. Some said the church this,” she said of Canadian church National Indigenous Bishop Mark Wilson stressed, however, not had been “key to my healing.” history. People are “still struggling MacDonald. all survivors’ experiences of the Others said, “It wasn’t the over” it. “There’s been a kind of Indigenous ways of life and church were the same. Some said, church who did these things to us; apprehension We really blew it.” spiritual practices “can no longer “I hate the church; I’ll never set it was individuals who hid behind Wilson responded to an ecu - be excluded or precluded by foot in the church again,” she said. the church who did these things menical statement made by an members of the church,” he said. Others said they felt “hurt” and to us.” An evangelizing church is needed: Jesuit

By Ramon Gonzalez world and proclaim the Good Western Catholic Reporter News.’ ” Leonard, an Australian preach - CCN/D. Gyapong EDMONTON (CCN) — Jesuit er and author, said if we want to NEWS CONFERENCE — Father Richard Leonard says we talk to the world, we’ve got to Anglican Church of Canada can’t sit at home, in the parish or know it and we have to answer its National Indigenous Bishop in the chancery office and wait Mark MacDonald at a March 30 questions. news conference with representa - for the world to come to us. He gave stats, including the tives of a range of Protestant reli - “I can’t find any evidence for fact that 67.3 per cent of Cana - gions responding to Call to Action it in the New Testament that the dians belong to a religion and #48 asking faith communities to Lord intended that we would wait 23.9 have no religion. About 11 bring their policies in line with for the world to come to us,” he per cent of Canadian Catholics go the United Nations Declaration said at a recent lecture. to mass weekly and 55 per cent of on the Rights of Indigenous “It’s exactly the opposite. Today the goers are foreign-born. If we Peoples (UNDRIP). is about Matthew 28: ‘Go out to the haven’t done something to ac - commodate this reality we have Genuine diocesan efforts to ask why not, he said. Leonard, an author, educator WCR/Gonzalez and critic of modern culture, spoke Rev. Richard Leonard, SJ will be needed: Chatlain to teachers and Catholic Pastoral Centre staff at Newman Theologi - we must strive to be “the best bap - shame, grief and anger. Now he is Continued from page 1 Canada’s founding did not make a cal College in early March. tizers, the best marriers and the demanding change. He wants “level playing field at all” for He based his lecture mostly on best buriers that we can possibly every single brother, priest and ignoring or undermining treaties, indigenous peoples. his latest book, What Are We be because when we do it well bishop who has ever been con - the bishops said. In their document, the bishops Doing on Earth for Christ’s Sake? nobody does it better than us.” victed of child sexual abuse, to Other steps include: making cited a long list of historical issues, The book invites Christians to The first thing to recognize is leave the ordained ministry for interaction with indigenous com - including matters related to self- revisit their faith amidst the chal - that believers and unbelievers good. munities part of ecumenical and determination, self-government, lenges of the contemporary have a lot in common, the Jesuit “I’m not saying God can’t for - inter-religious dialogue; improv - land claims, treaties, oppression of world. continued. “We all want justice, give you, but priesthood is still a ing holistic health services; pro - cultural traditions and spiritual In his lecture, the Jesuit said peace and love. Most decent peo - position of leadership in the com - moting a restorative justice model practices, education, social condi - the greatest evangelical moments ple I know want that.” munity and you can’t be a leader to combat the high incarceration tions, and, of course, residential where Catholics touch unbeliev - The idea that one needs God to in the community.” rate of these communities; sup - schools. ers are baptisms, weddings and be moral is obviously nonsense, The Jesuit said the church, for porting the national inquiry into Regarding the right of indige - funerals. “Where do most agnos - he said. its part, must protect the right of missing and murdered indigenous nous peoples to their own spiritu - tics, atheists and searchers turn up “First, the sexual abuse scan - minorities, including the right of women; helping indigenous com - al practices, the documents noted on our terms: at a baptism, at a dal has put into the public what transgendered students and staff munities build educational pro - “the failure to uphold this right is wedding and at a funeral.” (moral) force we are ourselves: in Catholic schools. grams to promote their culture a theme found throughout the Therefore, we have to be deeply immoral people who “We have transsexual students and experience; and reflecting on TRC’s final report.” “ridiculously hospitable” at those stood for decades preaching in our schools (in Australia). What the UN Declaration of the Rights Though there were historical events rather than saying, “Those morality to the congregation are we going to do about that? We of Indigenous Peoples so it can be instances of forced baptisms, in who are Catholic come to holy (while covering up the sexual are going to be ridiculously hos - supported and implemented. 1537 Pope Paul III declared evan - communion.” abuse). Look at us now. You can pitable; that’s what we are going Chatlain said the challenge is gelization of indigenous peoples “I have been at so many mo - be admirably moral and not to do,” he said. to “put into effect some of these “should only take place ‘by ments in the Catholic Church in believe in anything.” Leonard said he recently clear goals.” preaching the Word of God and the past 25 years where the first Leonard said the issue of sexu - learned the Catholic community “It’s going to take time,” he by the example of good and holy thing said at a Catholic liturgical al abuse has been front and centre in Canada is the biggest provider said. “I just pray we take genuine living,’ ” the document said. event is who is excluded,” he said. in most of the serious conversa - of health care, welfare, education, efforts in all of our dioceses to “While Christians have at times “I’ve gone to funerals, bap - tions about religion he has had in pastoral care and development aid move forward in a positive way.” failed to live up to the standard to tisms and weddings where we the last 25 years. “You can tell outside government. Chatlain said issues raised by which they are called by God, the have gotten rather worked up people all the good we do every It is good to know that fact, he the Truth and Reconciliation glaring failures to re spect the iden - about who is coming to holy day in the Catholic community, said, “because people want to tell Commission have been high on the tity and freedom of indigenous communion. It seems we are not the very next thing they say is you the only story about us is a bishops’ agenda for a long time. He children, outlined in the TRC Final interested in welcoming people.” ‘What about the sexual abuse of bad news story. We are actually said “some of the philosophies and Report, are particularly saddening Leonard said if we are going to children?’ ” practising what we preach but we cultural practices” that went into and must never be repeated.” be serious about evangelization His usual responses have been don’t tell one another.” April 6, 2016 CANADIAN NEWS Prairie Messenger 5 Progress is not always a good thing, says cardinal

By Michael Swan property which all people share with limited resources. exclusively in terms of another “The common good for us as a The Catholic Register as human beings. “We are on the brink. We are point of GDP growth or the bit church is the ultimate objective “The thing about assisted sui - on the precipice. It’s almost like technology on the market it limits and aim of any decent human TORONTO (CCN) — We have cide or euthanasia or whatever suicide now,” he said. our ability to think about how progress,” Turkson said. “That all the technology to extend life you call it, how does it make for Catholic social teaching, communities advance collectively of us be enabled to experience the beyond its natural limits, so why the due recognition of the dignity which elevates the common good to build a better society, he said. flourishing that belongs to all not apply our technological re - and the character of human life?” over individualism, is not an “Yes, there is the material side human beings allows the corre - sources to end a life when natural Turkson asked. of a person. But there’s sponding development of the dig - death eludes us? Why not take full “No individual is an island,” also the spiritual side.” nity of every human being.” responsibility for the control he told his audience. “This is true The spiritual isn’t The church isn’t against eco - humans already exercise over life? in every aspect and phase of necessarily confined to nomic progress or advances in For an African Christian, or human life. Relationship is funda - monasteries, monks technology. It only argues these any sort of Christian really, the mental to being human. End-of- and meditation. It relies must serve a purpose. idea that humans should engineer life provisions must not neglect on a culture that values “A technocratic mentality has the end of life — or its beginning this point.” human flourishing — come to dominate all aspects of — is dangerous thinking, It’s not as if the Catholic Church that elevates the ways life,” said Turkson. “It reduces all Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana runs away from the struggle, pain in which we collective - of reality to objects that can be told The Catholic Register. and suffering that can accompany ly provide for every - manipulated limitlessly. . . . This Turkson was in Toronto March death. Nor does the church promote one, including the poor, technocratic paradigm is the con - 21 to deliver the 2016 John M. some sort of ideology of suffering, the marginal, the dis - viction that all reality, including Kelly Lecture at St. Basil’s Church Turkson said. Palliative sedation abled and the heartbro - human life, can be reduced to on the campus of the University of and other forms of pain manage - ken, to discover the objects which people can endless - St. Michael’s College. The presi - ment which may hasten death but possibilities of human ly manipulate for the sake of dent of the Pontifical Council for whose purpose is to keep patients life. profit and without the slightest Justice and Peace used his lecture comfortable and at peace are more “Access to educa - ethical consideration.” to promote Pope Francis’ 2015 than acceptable. But deciding that tion, access to health The issues of human traffick - encyclical Laudato Si’ by ques - some forms of human life, some care, access to informa - ing and modern slavery which tioning our definition of progress. kinds of disability, make human tion, these are ultimate - women’s religious orders have “We cannot live as a human lives disposable, used-up and ly what determines how highlighted over recent decades, society in our interconnectedness, undignified subtracts from the well people live,” said are a key area for Catholic social in our interdependence, if we are value and dignity of all human life. Turkson. thought, said Turkson. Greed is not able to support and uphold “Compassion is misplaced Education is point - not good and the global traffic in one another,” Turkson said. when it intentionally hastens less in a culture that women for sex and men and chil - Whenever people decide to death, in fact, it discards. It is the Catholic Register/M. Swan does not value knowl - dren for the anonymous labour on take charge over the end of life ultimate form of exclusion, mar - Cardinal Peter Turkson edge. Health care is the underside of the global econo - they act as individuals outside of ginalization and throwing away,” meaningless in a soci - my only shows how the paradigm society and without regard to the said Turkson. attempt to limit freedom or stifle ety that does not guard public of profit can lead us away from common good. To elevate indi - Laudato Si’ is about much liberty. health. Elevating the individual at progress. vidual will above every other more than just the environment or “We don’t force anything. This the expense of our collective “When one man is trying to consideration, making individual climate change, Turkson said. is offered,” Turkson said. good can only undercut our free - step on another man’s head and autonomy the only consideration, Pope Francis is attempting to re- In the 21st century, accepting dom in the long run, Turkson neck, it’s always the gain. People breaks the common bond of frame our thinking about progress, the church’s offering of social argues. think there’s gain to be made and humanity. In the Catholic view culture, technology and economics teaching means reconsidering our Catholic social teaching, on then they are ready to do all of and in the African view, humanity by asking how human beings understanding of progress, he the other hand, is all about the that,” Turkson said. “The fraterni - and human dignity are common should live together on a planet said. When progress is thought of common good. ty of humanity would have us recognize and accept and affirm the dignity of each person, digni - UN Declaration echos Catholic social teaching ty which may not be compro - mised and reduced in any way by Continued from page 1 in that document find an echo in and pursued together. “For in - that went wrong in residential lifestyles such as enslavement or Catholic social teaching: these are stance, we are supporting a Cree schools, but we understand from prostitution or any of those forms. UN Declaration concludes with rights that every human being, language program in one of our our sense of family, that when There’s a big challenge there.” an “appeal to all our Catholic every cultural or linguistic group, churches, we are working with our one person in a family does brothers and sisters” to undertake and every community should indigenous community in terms of something wrong, the whole fam - eight commitments as a way to have,” he said. “This includes the integrating indigenous spiritual ily needs to be involved in recon - Seriousness of “continue to walk together with right to education, the right to their practices and initiatives into cele - ciliation — and we understand indigenous peoples in building a own cultural practices and spiritual brations and communities. We also Pope Francis to be the father of situation evident more just society where their gifts traditions, the right to land, eco - worked with a number of Christian your family.’ I find that argument and those of all people are nur - nomic development, and so on.” churches on an event about missing very powerful.” Continued from page 3 tured and honoured.” In addition to affirming the UN and murdered Aboriginal women.” Bolen said that Pope Francis Those Walking Forward To- De claration, the document ac - During the TRC process and at has been informed of the TRC “It’s going to show the serious - gether commitments include knowledges the failures of the all the major national TRC request. “I am sure the Holy ness of the situation,” said Aid To actions around education; learning church: “Although many priests, events, Catholic bishops were Father is going to take it very seri - The Church In Need-Canada to tell the history of Canada in a brothers, sisters, and laypeople present and offered apologies, ously. That being said, I am sure executive director Marie-Claude truthful and complete way; pro - served in the residential schools which were well received, Bolen that he has received dozens if not Lalonde. “When you talk about moting and supporting indigenous with generosity, faithfulness, care, said. “But it is not enough simply hundreds of invitations, and every other genocides, you see the face reflection and dialogue; encourag - and respect for their students, this to apologize. Reconciliation calls one of them has its own integrity. of people changing when you use ing partnerships between indige - was not always the case. The TRC for more. I think there is a real And so we wait and see.” the word genocide. It means that nous groups and health care facili - Final Report rightly observes that readiness to engage not only with Noting that the pope apolo - it’s the worst it can be.” ties; strengthening a restorative when Christians, through the resi - the Calls to Action, but to walk in gized to indigenous peoples in the Lalonde wants both govern - justice model in the criminal jus - dential schools, belittled indige nous solidarity in a new way with Americas while visiting Bolivia, ment and the public to be in no tice system; and supporting the students as ‘pagans’ or ‘demonized, indigenous peoples.” as well as on a recent visit to doubt about the seriousness of the national inquiry into missing and punished, and terrorized them into One of the other much-publi - Mexico, Bolen added, “I think the situation Christians face in Iraq murdered indigenous women. The accepting Christian beliefs,’ this cized TRC Calls to Action, #58, Holy Father’s heart is always and Syria. commitments also call for Cana- was in fundamental contradiction to is to have Pope Francis come to open to and attentive to people in “We’re not talking about geno - dian Catholic organizations and the core beliefs of Christianity. Canada to meet with indigenous need, and he is looking to redress cide just to talk about it, but be - individuals to broaden and deepen While Christians have at times people and to apologize in person the wrongs that Catholics have cause we want to have people relationships and collaboration failed to live up to the standard to for the “Church’s role in the spiri - engaged in in the past. I think his really mobilized to do some - with indigenous peoples in mov - which they are called by God, the tual, cultural, emotional, physical, heart would be with this sugges - thing,” she said. ing forward on the TRC Calls to glaring failures to respect the identi - and sexual abuse of First Nations, tion, but, at the same time, I can’t Lester B. Pearson signed the Action, as well as inviting a ty and freedom of indigenous chil - Inuit, and Métis children in imagine what his schedule is like. UN Convention on the Prevention greater familiarity with the United dren outlined in the TRC Final Catholic-run residential schools.” Nevertheless, I’m hopeful.” and Punishment of the Crime of Nations Declaration on the Rights Report are particularly saddening In conversation with indige - In the meantime, Bolen said he Genocide on behalf of Canada of Indigenous Peoples, to foster and must never be repeated.” nous people, Bolen said he has would encourage every Catholic, Nov. 28, 1949. It states that per - reflection on how aspects of the Bolen noted that, since the TRC come to a deeper understanding and every Canadian, to read the sons charged with genocide should declaration can be implemented. national event held in Saskatoon of the reasons behind this request, TRC Final Report. “We are called be tried in the territory in which This is not the first time the four years ago, the diocese has and believes it would bring about to deal with that history now,” he the genocide occurred. While Vatican and the church have established a Diocesan Council for a deep level of healing that can’t said. “It’s an invitation to change, Canada would readily support a responded positively to the UN Truth and Reconciliation in which happen any other way. “One an invitation to a deeper engage - prosecution of Islamic State lead - Declaration on the Rights of indigenous and non-indigenous indigenous friend explained: ‘It’s ment. I believe the Holy Spirit is ership, those leaders are not in cus - Indigenous Peoples, noted Bolen. representatives strive to discern not that we think the pope is per - in this process and in this invita - tody and it’s unclear who is in a “Many of the rights identified what issues need to be addressed sonally responsible for everything tion to us as church.” position to arrest them. 6 Prairie Messenger LOCAL NEWS April 6, 2016 Think Indigenous conference held in Saskatoon

By Andréa Ledding see all of us standing up against it, sure on the government. Some again and it shall be a blessing for talked about the traditional and it makes it that much harder.” attended the court cases in person. the sick world. A world filled with ceremonial healing aspects of the SASKATOON — The third Displaying information and “Kids understand equality, broken promises, selfishness and game, and how it saved his own annual Think Indigenous Education documents from the recent court they understand love, and they separations. A world longing for life when he was a challenged conference was held March 15 - case, Blackstock explained that understand fairness. Kids are not light again. I see a time of seven teen. 18, beginning with the first annual governments don’t create change, just learners, they’re teachers,” generations, when all the colours “Lacrosse is much more than a Think Indigenous Youth Con fer- they respond to it, and it is in - noted Blackstock, adding that of mankind will gather under the sport, it’s part of our community, ence at Nutana Collegiate in cumbent upon Canadians and children are our hope and our sacred tree of life and the whole it’s part of our life,” said Saskatoon and continuing with First Nations people to exert pres - future; they are more important earth will become one circle Thompson. “For me, from birth workshops, speakers, tours, panels sure on the federal and provincial than we are, and need to be sup - again. In that day, those among to death, lacrosse is with us. and a banquet. On March 18 key - governments. ported in the face of historic and the Lakota who will carry knowl - We’re given a little lacrosse stick note speaker Cindy Blackstock “It’s just as vital to teach non- contemporary injustice. edge and understanding of unity in our cradle board, and given spoke about her recent win against Aboriginal kids about this as it is A series on March 17 featured among all living things, and the one in our coffin as well to use in the government of Canada on the First Nations, Métis and Inuit many presenters, beginning with young white ones will come, to the next lifetime.” behalf of First Nations children. kids,” noted Blackstock, giving Chief Delbert Wapass on the those of my people to ask for wis - Curtis Jo Miller came from a “Nobody else has to fight from examples of child activists, both Treaty Right to Education, dom. I salute the light within their life of abuse and crime and a series childhood to be treated equally by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, describing teachers as oskapios eyes where the whole universe of foster homes to gang life and the government,” said Black stock. who have supported her, or started — ceremonial helpers with a dwells, for when you are at the pris on, to become an artist and “Kids codify that. When they don’t their own initiatives to exert pres - sacred responsibility to the centre within you and I am at the youth worker with a full pardon. treaties and education. place within me, we are as one.” He advocates giving re sponsibility “We have to ask ourselves, Dr. Shauneen Pete, of First to young people who are having where did I come from, what’s my Nations University in Regina, hard times in school, and helping story? If you don’t know where observed that every learner in the them to teach others. you came from there’s no way country has been disadvantaged “I’ve been really good at being you’re going to know where you’re by not learning about indigenous bad, what about being good?” going,” noted Wapass. “Treaty is communities, and responsibilities Miller asked himself at age 34, not about you, it’s about those kids are not only to indigenous stu - after a life of drugs and violence. who are not yet born. What is your dents but non-indigenous students He be came sober and wanted to responsibility?” to fix that. work with other youth at risk, He reflected on the sacredness Traditional medicine woman em phasizing the importance of of the treaties, saying that while Kathleen Bird encouraged teachers empathy and compassion. “Every the government hasn’t held up its to learn alongside their students by person has value and every life part, First Nations have to be vig - going on medicine walks and can be turned around; it takes no ilant about their part nonetheless. beginning to learn how to identify more than a simple decision and “What is the spirit and intent? basic plants and medicines. the courage to come back.” A lot of us as Indian people fail “We come from a beautiful Norman Fleury ended the the spiritual part of our treaties. place,” she observed, “and we Thurs day talks with re flec tions on Why did they negotiate treaties, need to listen to the stories the old the Métis perspective, saying that what does that mean, a covenant? people have. They’re going, and there were many misconceptions Why did they use prayer? Why we’ve got to capture them before about the Métis. He ob jected to do we still exist, why does our they go, because that’s where our the offensive term half-breed. treaty right to education still children and our grandchildren are “I’m not half, I’m double if exist, and what does that mean? going to heal. So I encourage you I’m anything,” said Fleury, noting HOLY TRINITY HOUSE — A group at St. Joseph the Worker “Treaty is about controlling our as educators — don’t get stuck in that, of all indigenous people, Church in Russell, Man., is working to establish a retreat house in a own destiny, not being dependent the box. Take our kids out for “our language and our culture and restored 1926 farmhouse to be known as Holy Trinity House. on government,” noted Wapass. medicine walks. Learn with them. our spirituality and the land are “Decolonize your thinking.” Open the doors, even if it’s just a the glue that makes us who we Retreat house envisioned Kenisha Tootoosis spoke on crack. There are still many of our are and holds us together.” empowering women and youth, people who know the knowledge The talks, MCed by Ryan for Russell, Man. quoting the prophecy of Crazy of the land.” McMahon, were live-streamed Horse: “Upon suffering beyond Jeremy Thompson of the and will be uploaded on USask’s suffering, the red nation shall rise Saskatoon Rush lacrosse team YouTube channel. By James Buchok and former Archbishop of Winni- peg, Rev. James Weisgerber. WINNIPEG — A group at St. Continuing discernment of the Knights to refocus on parishes Joseph the Worker Church in vision is moving forward with the Russell, Man., is working to estab - advice and guidance of Rev. By Frank Flegel is to be in solidarity with our other youth programs that were not lish a retreat house in a restored Norberto Monton, pastor at St. priests,” said Schatz. “Are we do- part of the parish. He emphasized 1926 farmhouse to be known as Joseph the Worker Church in REGINA — ”Our Supreme ing as much as we can to be in- that family activities, too, were Holy Trinity House. Russell, and Rev. Leo Fernandes, Council has relooked at it; are we volved in our parishes, to be sup - apart, but the refocus is to bring Darin and Carlene Douglas say pastor at Ste-Rose-de-Lima doing as much as we can to be portive of the ministry of our cler - them more in align with the parish - the vision for the space is one of Church in Ste-Rose-du-Lac, Man. involved in our parishes, to be as gy? As we looked at it, there were es. He noted that all Sas katchewan “a means for encountering and The property was donated and supportive of the ministry of our a number of things that maybe K of C councils are parish-based, experiencing the divine most the status of the retreat house is clergy,” said Saskatchewan Knights were not in align with what is hap - and that K of C councils have part - Holy Trinity. A space to reside for currently one of a non-profit corpo - of Columbus (K of C) State Secre - pening in the parishes.” nered with the Regina archdiocese prayer.” ration, in need of further renovation tary Brian Schatz in a March 15 in several youth Once a family home, the house before officially opening. The interview with the PM. He and Guy gatherings. sits on a treed farm yard located Knights of Columbus from St. Precourt, membership and program Precourt, also near Binscarth, Man., 20 km Lazare, Rossburn, Roblin and consultant for the Supreme Coun - speaking with the south of Russell. Russell have donated their time and cil, presented this refocus to priests, PM, echoed much Organizers describe the effort to aid with renovation. knights and guests who met at Holy of what Schatz said. grounds’ winding wooded paths Organizers say they welcome and Child Church the afternoon of “This is really get - as places “providing time for appreciate individual or group vol - March 15. ting our brothers prayer during contemplative unteers. The idea of the special presen - and our families to walks. The freedom to be as we Being ecumenical in nature, tation came from Holy Child pas - sort of come home are in our circumstance of life, numerous other Christian denomi - tor Rev. Danilo Rafael, who heard and make the parish with our Lord in prayer. A home nations will be made aware of Precourt at a priest gathering in the centre of all of hospitality, a quiet, safe, restful Holy Trinity House. Feb ruary and was so impressed he activity, and that’s overnight accommodation, pro - A board of directors has been felt it should be heard by more really the direction viding retreat and revitalization to formed with members Darin and priests. our Supreme people of all ages, individuals, Carlene Douglas and Gary and It began with a 25-minute Knight is showing.” families or groups. An atmos - Nicole Petz, from St. Joseph the video of Supreme Knight Carl In the 132 years phere of simplicity, inspired Worker Church, and committee Anderson delivering a speech at a since its formation, through prayer and the spirituality members Rick and Patti Anderson K of C mid-term meeting in San F. Flegel it’s time to refocus of St. Francis of Assisi, inviting in from St. Augustine of Canterbury Antonio late in 2015. He described Brian Schatz and Guy Precourt to bring young peo - union with our Lord as the focus.” Church in Brandon. The board the new initiative as a refocus on ple back to church, Permission and blessings to pro - asks “for your prayers that our traditional activities for the Some of the youth programs said Precourt. Many parish priests ceed with the Holy Trinity House Lord God’s divine will continue to Knights. were separate from the parish, are knights, said Precourt, and get - project have been granted by be done.” “The Knights were founded on said Schatz, and some K of C ting on and are tired. “Maybe it’s Archbishop of Winnipeg Richard For more information con - the principles of charity, unity, fra - councils throughout the order are time we contact more brother Gagnon, Ukrainian Catholic tact Darin or Carlene Douglas ternity and patriotism, but our separate from the parishes. knights and help our parish priests Metro politan Lawrence Huculak, at 1-204-532-2157. unwritten mode of operation really He referred to Boy Scout and and our parishioners as a whole.” April 6, 2016 LOCAL NEWS Prairie Messenger 7 Diverse crowd follows Way of the Cross

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski Peace at the ninth station. Mem - bers of Sacred Heart Chaldean SASKATOON — A diverse Catholic Church led prayers at the crowd sang and prayed through 10th station, reflecting on Christian the streets of Saskatoon on Good persecution around the world Friday morning, continuing the The vulnerability of newcom - annual tradition of an outdoor ers who come to Canada in search Way of the Cross connecting the of peace and security was the passion, suffering and death of focus of a reflection by members Jesus Christ to injustice and suf - of Couples for Christ at the 11th fering in today’s world. station, while peace and peace- The event began with a reflec - building was the theme at the 12th tion on Jesus’ agony in the gar - station. The Hispanic Catholic den, in light of the agony of refu - community then carried the cross gees around the world who are to the 13th station for a time of displaced by violence or persecu - silent reflection on Jesus’ death. tion. “They know what it is to Faith leaders of Saskatoon led pray for some other option, to the prayers at the final station on have that cup removed; yet, no the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, matter how difficult, these coura - reflecting how love can be at geous people arise. They stand work even in moments of dark - up, and like Jesus, face what lies ness and suffering, and looking to ahead with steadfast courage and the hope of Easter. initiative,” reflected Christine “Where are the places where Zyla, co-ordinator of the diocesan Tim Yaworski death reigns, and what can we do Office of Migration in the WAY OF THE CROSS — Hundreds followed the cross through the streets of Saskatoon on Good Friday in there while we wait for the bigger Diocese of Saskatoon. Saskatoon, singing and praying the Way of the Cross and reflecting on justice and peace issues and suffering narrative to interrupt death’s victo - Frances Stang, president of the in our world today. In this photo members of the L’Arche community carry the cross to the third station. ry?” asked Bishop Donald Bolen. diocesan council of the Catholic “Where can we prepare the tomb Women’s League, led the reflec - nities that respect the dignity of and on the unhealthy thirst for vulnerable was the theme of and bring the spices and watch and tion at the second station, Jesus’ all people. vengeance in our society. prayers at the seventh station, pray in our day? How can we, as betrayal and arrest, with a reflec - Reflecting on Peter’s denial of MaryAnne Morrison of the “Jesus takes up the cross,” led by witnesses to the bigger narrative, tion about the looming legaliza - Jesus at the fourth station, Pastor Diocesan Council for Truth and members of the Catholic Health bring hope into the places of tion of assisted suicide and George Hind, trustee of Saska - Reconciliation and Rev. Deb. Association of Saskatchewan and despair, light into the darkness? euthanasia. toon Native Ministry, recalled Walker of the River Bend Pres - the St. Thomas More Lawyers’ And how can we be witnesses, “Today we are facing betrayal others like Peter who have “seen bytery of the United Church led Guild. together, of the bigger story at by those whom we should trust: justice distorted and compassion reflections and prayers about Members of the Friends of Loa work, God’s story, love’s victory?” our lawmakers, health care pro - extinguished,” including indige- murdered and missing women, prayed at city hall, recalling how The event concluded with the fessionals, family members, our nous peoples, as revealed through affirming “there is no life that Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus assembled reciting the Lord’s own pride and arrogance,” said the Truth and Reconciliation does not find its source in God. carry his cross and reflecting on Prayer in their own language Stang. “We pray for true compas - Commission. “Against this force We are all struck down, wounded the call to solidarity with people before being blessed by the faith sion for those who face this ulti - of history, it is difficult for First and broken when we fail to around the world. leaders. A soup and bannock mate betrayal — that they have Nations people to speak. In the remember that every person is Caring for the earth as our com - lunch prepared by Our Lady of been deemed to be not as worthy face of neglect, injustice and beloved by God.” mon home was the theme of the Guadalupe Parish was served in of life as others. We pray for a abuse they, like Peter, feel com - The need for palliative care reflection and prayers presented by St. Paul’s Parish hall after the change of heart for those who pelled to deny who they are and and preserving the dignity of the Caritas Canada/Development and event. believe it is their right to choose what they value.” when to end a life.” Members of the Micah Mission, Members of the Saskatoon an ecumenical restorative justice Conference on the Family held L’Arche community carried the ministry, led the reflection and cross to the third station, praying prayers at the fifth station, focusing By James Buchok Catholic Organization for Life belong to the church as the Body for welcoming and open commu - on Jesus being judged by Pilate, and Family. He has authored sev - of Christ, but also to know that WINNIPEG — Bishop Noël eral articles on bioethics, human they can have a joyful and fruitful How many people have Simard has never been married or sexuality and AIDS: Ethical and experience in it. . . . It is therefore had children, but he is the 11th of Spiritual Considerations. He was the duty of priests to accompany no friends or connections? 13 kids and has long-married sib - installed as bishop of the Diocese such people in helping them lings “who tell me their prob - of Valleyfield, Que., in 2012. understand their situation accord - lems,” and he believes that counts Simard spoke of the challenge ing to the teaching of the church Continued from page 3 even if it is inconvenient to you for a lot when it comes to know - of accepting the diversity of mod - and the guidelines of the bishop.” — to share what you’ve got with ing about families. ern family experiences without Simard said it is wrong to love. “I have all these amazing somebody else who needs it.” In fact, Simard has spent years giving up one’s convictions and force one’s values on others, and relationships in my life where The homeless and the hungry studying and writing about fami - beliefs. what is right is “to love and re - people are pouring out love, and are all around us, even if we live in lies, and was one of five Cana - He said once-faithful church- spect and learn from each other, when I mess up, they are forgiv - the suburbs. “Who are the home - dian bishops participating in the goers who experience divorce sud - to live our Christianity. ing me over and over,” she said, less in my neighbourhood? Who synod on the family last October denly find the church has no place “A family is any group that has but she found that she was not are the people who go home to a at the Vatican. for them, and the same can be said love and commitments in a rela - really receiving that mercy or place with lots of stuff but have He said the dilemma facing of people of different sexual orien - tionship. Others in a different accepting forgiveness. Her own nowhere to call home?” she asked. Catholics is how to promote the tations. “There are good people combination can love each other. spiritual walk has been learning to “How many people in our culture model of the Christian family with - who leave the church because they When we define something we let that love and mercy wash over have no friends, or are lacking out discriminating against those feel like the church hates them. It’s create limits, so what limits can her, rather than building walls to connections, or don’t feel at home, who don’t comply with it. “A lot of one of the reasons the pope called we put on a family?” keep them out. even though they are there? And people want a traditional family,” the synod,” he said. Regardless of the inability to Following Dorothy Day’s what can I do to ease that?” he said, “but question what that is Simard said the synod’s final define family, Simard said, “Family observation that everything a bap - She provided a series of practi - now. What is a family?” report includes 92 points and is the core of society; when family tized Christian does should be cal examples about living acts of Simard was guest speaker at a Pope Francis will soon issue a goes well, society goes well. directly or indirectly related to the mercy: in choosing not to ostracize, Conference on the Family in statement on the report. He said Family is the principal identity of corporal and spiritual acts of in reaching out to protect those Winnipeg March 19, presented by points 84 and 85, regarding the individuals; it helps them to be mercy, Perrault reflected on every - who are vulnerable, in responding the Catholic School of Evan ge- baptized and divorced, prompted objects of evangelization and sub - day expressions of feeding the with solidarity and encouragement lization in St. Malo and spon - difficult debate and were narrow - jects of evangelization. hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, to those wrestling with doubt, and sored by the archdioceses of ly approved by the 270 voting “We must announce the good clothing the naked, visiting the in sharing the wisdom of experi - Winnipeg and St. Boniface. priests. news of families, but we are fac - sick, freeing the imprisoned and ence with those who are seeking. Simard was ordained in 1972, Simard voted for the recom - ing many challenges. Do we take burying the dead, of instructing the Expressing profound gratitude taught at Laval University in mendations, which state: “The time to talk and reflect? Don’t ignorant, counselling the doubtful, for the mercy and love she herself Quebec City, the University of baptized who are divorced and miss a chance to start a conversa - bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving has received, Perrault concluded Sudbury and St. Paul University civilly remarried need to be more tion in the family.” offences willingly, comforting the with the call to live mercy as a in Ottawa. He is a member of the integrated into Christian commu - “These new situations create afflicted and praying. witness in the world. “We have Pontifical Academy for Life and nities in a variety of possible lessons about accepting,” Simard The corporal and spiritual acts been given this great deposit of the International Federation of ways, while avoiding any chance said, adding that the word synod of mercy simply involve “the faith, not for us to hold in our Catholic Bioethicists. Simard is a of scandal. The logic of integra - means “walk with” and Pope ability to notice that someone heads and lord over other people, founding member of the Cana - tion is the key to their pastoral Francis strives for a synodal needs something, and to show up but for us to practice imperfectly, dian Catholic Institute of Bio - care, a care which might allow church. “It doesn’t mean we agree to provide it just because you can, moment by moment, day by day.” ethics and is past chair of the them not only to realize that they with, but we can accompany.” 8 Prairie Messenger ARTS & CULTURE April 6, 2016 Caravaggio masterpiece on mercy calls to Pope Francis

By David Gibson so that it is most awkward to get Caravaggio as a low-life who ©2016 Religion News Service along with him.” dragged religious art into the gutter His reputation was such that with him. If Pope Francis wanted a single when he killed a young man in As Ward notes in his book, the image to illustrate the special Year 1606, perhaps accidentally, he had English critic John Ruskin of Mercy that is the current focus little chance to defend himself — lumped Caravaggio “among the of his ministry and, indeed, the Caravaggio soon had a price on worshippers of the depraved,” theme at the heart of his pontifi - his head and the authorities at his and Ruskin’s contemporary, John cate, he could do no better than heels. So he fled to Naples, where Addington Symonds, said the choosing an underappreciated he initially enjoyed the protection artist portrayed “sacred and his - masterpiece by the thrilling Italian of the influential Colonna family, torical events as though they were artist known as Caravaggio. and in the space of just a few being enacted in the ghetto by In fact, the 400-year-old canvas, months painted some of his great - butchers and fishwives.” an altarpiece in a Naples church est works, including The Seven It was only after the Second titled The Seven Acts of Mercy , Acts of Mercy . World War that the rehabilitation may represent the perfect combina - Yet he still felt uneasy about of Caravaggio began (even if tion of the man — or, rather, two his safety and he bolted again, rumours of his scabrous personal men — and the moment: a brilliant this time to Malta, where he con - habits persist), and in recent years painter with a scurrilous reputation tinued to paint, and fight, and in his popularity has reached unimag - who was striving for redemption, 1608 he was again forced to run, ined heights. He has been called and a popular pontiff struggling to first to Sicily and then back to the father of modern painting and make the church more welcoming Naples, where he was gravely the inspiration for film noir. With to outcasts. wounded in an attempt on his life. relatively few canvases extant, and “A dramatic convergence has Desperate to find sanctuary and no drawings, every Caravaggio taken place between Pope Francis’ a pardon, in the hot summer of exhibit is a blockbuster and every teachings and Caravaggio’s mes - 1610 Caravaggio set out for Rome chapel that houses a Caravaggio sage,” writes Terence Ward in his with three paintings in tow that he becomes a destination. new book on the painting, titled planned to give to the powerful Except for The Seven Acts of The Guardian of Mercy . Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Mercy . Even Ward’s book represents a nephew of Pope Paul V, who alone Feeding the hungry . . . stroke of providence in that he had the power to pardon Cara - started it years ago after wander - vaggio and finally provide him a The painting was commis - ing into the church where the respite from his travails. sioned shortly after Caravaggio painting has hung for centuries, But Caravaggio didn’t make it. arrived in Naples by a group of only to have his laptop with the The circumstances of his death pious nobles who were dedicated first manuscript stolen. have never been clear, and the to caring for the poor. They want - The delay meant that the publi - artist’s body has never been defini - ed an altarpiece for the church of cation of Ward’s book coincided tively identified. But sometime dur - Pio Monte della Misericordia that with the pope’s Jubilee Year Arcade Publishing ing a stopover in a port city in reflected their mission to carry of Mercy, and a revolutionary pon - CARAVAGGIO AND MERCY — A 400-year-old canvas by Italian Tuscany, Caravaggio died, or, per - out the seven works of mercy set tificate that would seem to dove - artist Caravaggio is the inspiration for a new book titled The Guardian haps, he was killed. He certainly out in the Scriptures: feeding the tail so easily with Caravaggio’s of Mercy by Terence Ward. had enemies, and the three paint - hungry, giving water to the boundary-pushing style. ings — two of which disappeared thirsty, sheltering the homeless, The confluence of develop - (One scene from that cycle, his One contemporary description and have never been found — were visiting the prisoner, clothing the ments is also no small irony, and famous Calling of St. Matthew , of Caravaggio recalled that “after worth stealing. He was just 38. naked, healing the sick and bury - perhaps some posthumous vindica - has been cited by both Pope a fortnight’s work he will swag - History did not treat Caravaggio ing the dead. tion, for an artist who died while Francis and his immediate prede - ger about for a month or two with very mercifully, either: his once Eager for the cash, Caravaggio desperately seeking mercy from cessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict a sword at his side and a servant soaring reputation quickly hit the finished the work in less than four another pope, of an entirely differ - XVI, as an inspiration. “Among following him, from one ball- skids after his death, and even the months, and he managed to repre- ent cast, in an entirely different era. the great painters, I admire court to the next, ever ready to 19th-century aesthetes who “redis - Among the worshippers of Caravaggio; his paintings speak engage in a fight or an argument, covered” Italian painting disdained — PAINTING, page 9 the depraved to me,” Francis has said.) Some of Caravaggio’s other Michelangelo Merisi was born Gospel-themed masterpieces from in 1571 in northern Italy and grew this period were The Taking of St. Angela Merici Residence up in the town of Caravaggio — Christ, The Conversion of St. Paul in Saskatoon requires a permanent part-time hence his later moniker. He was and The Penitent Magdalene , orphaned at 11, just as he began an paintings that became touchstone apprenticeship in an artist’s work - representations of those New Testa - Clinical Care Co-Ordinator ment episodes and characters. His shop. He was known as a hothead to begin as soon as possible 0.6 FTE (24 hours/week). There may be opportunity in future to early on, however, and had to naturalistic style and theatricality increase hours. Salary to commensurate with skills and experience. leave Milan for Rome around also served him particularly well in 1590, reportedly after getting in depicting graphic scenes of martyr - St. Angela Merici Residence is a retirement home for primarily, but not exclusively, members trouble for wounding a police offi - dom and violence, such as The of the Ursuline Sisters. It provides care for Sisters who are elderly or infirm, recovery for those cer in a street fight. Crucifixion of St. Peter and Judith who need convalescing, and a centre of welcome for guests. But Caravaggio’s remarkable Beheading Holofernes . talent always seemed to save him. In interpreting these religious General Description: Reporting to the Administrator, and in communication with the Sister Whether painting a basket of narratives, Caravaggio seemed to Co-ordinator, the Clinical Care Co-ordinator facilitates a caring, compassionate, community, in fruit or a fortuneteller, Caravaggio find the perfect vehicle to express the tradition of the Ursuline Sisters. The Clinical Care Co-ordinator provides appropriate clinical used darkness and light to convey not only his bravura talent and interventions to residents, clinical leadership and direction to care staff and, working with the such realism on a canvas that he technique (he was famous, or leadership team, facilitates appropriate resources and ensures that the processes required to quickly became the toast of the infamous to many of his peers, provide care in a safe, effective, and efficient manner are in place. big-money Roman art scene — a for painting directly from life Experience: bustling and prestigious market in onto canvas without preliminary G Minimum five years experience in care of the elderly which the Roman Catholic sketches) but also his own G Church and its cardinal-princes intense, if turbulent, spirituality Minimum three years experience in management associated with care of the elderly were among the chief patrons. — a struggling sinner who can’t Required Qualifications: G Yet if hefty commissions were seem to stay out of trouble. Current registration in good standing with SRNA Artistically, that made for a G the lure, it was in the predomi - Current certification in CPR, first aid and TLR nantly religious images that potent combination that was, G Current criminal record check Caravaggio was paid to paint that however, sometimes a bit much G he may have found his true voca - for his church patrons; they occa - Valid driver’s licence tion, as well as his greatest fame. sionally found his sensibility lean - Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: G His series on the life of St. ing closer to sensuousness than Demonstrable skills in diplomacy, tact and leadership G Matthew, for example, had by devotion, forcing Caravaggio to Highly effective communication and interpersonal skills G 1600 made him arguably the most rework some commissions to An understanding of religious community life is an asset controversial, and most imitated, make them more palatable to reli - artist in Italy. gious authorities. Please reply in confidence to: Theresa Winterhalt, Administrator; St. Angela Merici Residence, In the end, however, it was Car - 125 Cree Cres.; Saskatoon, SK S7K 7J1; with your resumé by April 27, 2016. a vaggio’s unbridled temper rather email: [email protected] than his dramatic painting style that Gibson is a national reporter We thank all who apply, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted. for Religion News Service. would lead to his downfall. April 6, 2016 ARTS & CULTURE Prairie Messenger 9 Church’s challenge: forgiving the sins of the fathers

Screenings & Meanings

Gerald Schmitz

When Spotlight , the drama back decades. Some have accused about the Boston Globe’s past Pell of being complicit in that investigation of child sexual abuse regard. While he did not admit to in the Catholic Church, somewhat any personal responsibility, he told unexpectedly took the best-picture the inquiry: “I’m not here to Oscar at the Academy Awards on defend the indefensible. The Feb. 28, it shone a renewed global church has made enormous mis - spotlight on a scandal that contin - takes and is working to remedy Berlin Film Festival ues to reverberate at the highest those, but the church in many CHALLENGING FILM — The characters in The Club , a film about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, levels of the church. Since 2002 places, certainly in Australia, has live in a “grim world bathed in shadow and fog,” according to one description. when Globe journalists broke the mucked things up, has let people story of what was happening in down. . . . There’s a tendency to scourge of sex abuse of minors. action from the Oscar podium was erman, Sandokan (Roberto the Boston archdiocese, over evil in the Catholic Church too, The day after Spotlight’s Oscar win welcomed as a positive signal that Farias), who recognizes him. 3,400 cases have been brought to and sometimes it’s better, some - the Vatican daily L’Osserva tore “there is still trust in the institution Sandokan, fuelled by alcohol and the attention of the Vatican. times it’s worse, but for good or for Romano praised the film as an and in a pope who is pressing rage, starts shouting in the street ill, the church follows the patterns accurate portrayal and “not anti- ahead with the cleaning up begun about graphic details of the abus - The Club of the societies in which it lives.” Catholic.” While cautioning that by his predecessor.” es he claims he was subjected to In other words, the church “predators do not necessarily wear Still, the trust that was lost will by Father Lazcano when he was a (Chile, 2015) needs forgiveness for its sins and ecclesiastical vestments, and not be easily restored. There are boy. So much for the club’s quiet a process of reconciliation as pedophilia does not necessarily plenty of skeptics, including anonymity. And a crisis looms Just hours before the Oscar cer - much as any other area of society. stem from the vow of chastity,” the among the faithful, and especially when the accusations provoke a emony, Vatican treasurer Cardinal This moment of reckoning could paper’s front-page editorial ac- among survivors of sexual abuse, shocking suicide. George Pell had testified before become an Easter opportunity for knowledged “it is now clear that, who have felt the betrayal most The church hierarchy reacts by Australia’s Royal Commission into atonement and renewal. in the church, too many people keenly. sending a young priest, Father Institutional Response to Child I find it heartening that concerned themselves more with Although it won’t get nearly the Garcia (Marcelo Alonso), a Sexual Abuse on the numerous Spotlight was screened at the the image of the institution than the attention accorded Spotlight , there trained psychologist with mission - failings in how clerical abuse alle - Vatican for the commission set up gravity of the act.” Moreover, the is another excellent 2015 film that ary experience in Africa, to inves - gations had been handled dating by Pope Francis to deal with the Spotlight filmmakers’ call for penetrates this disturbing situation tigate and figure out what to do. and the challenge it poses to church He has extensive files at his dis - authorities. This is The Club from posal, including records of con - Painting continues to reveal its secrets prominent Chilean director Pablo fessions, and sternly interrogates Larraín. The film is making its way the members of the club. An omi - Continued from page 8 one of the city’s typically dys - ‘He’s the artist of the poor.’ into a few Canadian theatres many nous picture emerges of patterns functional reorganizations, was months after it premiered at the of misconduct, not just of preying sent each of the works of mercy shuttled to look after this back - Will Francis join in this chorus Berlin Film Festival in February on children but of abducting in a single frame — an astonish - water masterwork. of hosannas? 2015 where it was awarded the babies born to unwed mothers. ingly compact composition that After years of contemplating As with almost everything “silver bear” grand jury prize. Father Garcia bans the use of continues to reveal its secrets to the image, Esposito had come to about Caravaggio, and The Seven Although the film is a work of fic - alcohol and lays down some strict persistent viewers. appreciate and understand The Acts of Mercy , there is no simple tion, the stories it probes are all too rules. He is not aggressive but he The images are arresting, and Seven Acts of Mercy in ways few answer, and much debate. plausible. has no time for denials or eva - themes sometimes overlap: an old scholars have, and Ward’s book Esposito and the Pio Monte Larraín is best known for a sions. There are frank discussions man in prison is suckled at the recounts Esposito’s own transfor - society in Naples that still owns trilogy of remarkable features that about pedophilia, homosexuality, breast of a young woman, a saint mation in relationship to the altar - the painting seem to expect that uncovered dark corners of and feelings of self-loathing. He divides his cloak for a naked man piece, along with the tangled past this “pope of surprises” might Chilean life during the Pinochet treats the members of the club as and comforts a beggar on the and present of Naples itself, and pop down from the Vatican any dictatorship ( Post Mortem, Tony damaged individuals in need of ground, an innkeeper welcomes a the life of Caravaggio. “The poet day. “They’re just waiting for the Manero, No ). In The Club he healing as much as their victims. pilgrim. of hope,” as the painting’s call,” Ward said. turns his unsparing lens on a The residents, however, suspect The main problem was finding guardian calls him. And why not? Francis loves small group of fallen members of that Father Garcia has an agenda to the painting. The Pio Monte soci - It makes for a compelling narra - Caravaggio, and mercy. But the the church who have failed to live close down their house. Arguments ety that commissioned the work tive, and it also gets to the heart of pope is busy, and dedicating a up to their religious vows. They escalate when he demands they get stipulated that it remain in the Caravaggio’s appeal — to modern day’s travel for a painting, even live together almost hidden away rid of the dogs. Meanwhile, the church, and even as Caravaggio’s eyes and, perhaps, to Francis and this Caravaggio altarpiece, is ask - in a house in the coastal village of aggrieved Sandokan continues to reputation was revived in recent his fans. That’s because Caravaggio ing a lot. La Boca. The members of this verbally harass the club like a decades, The Seven Acts of Mercy drew from life, and street life in A suggestion by Italy’s presi - “club” are four wayward priests madman possessed. Father Garcia was largely left behind because it particular, and his saints are peas - dent to bring the painting to Rome and a nun, resigned to a sort of reaches out to try to help him, to was never part of a museum’s col - ants; all of them are baptized but for an exhibit for the Year of spiritual exile. The priests are ease the pain of his terrible burden. lection or any special exhibition unwashed — even the angels “look Mercy where Francis — and many, Father Vidal (Alfredo Castro), But he is unable to prevent another outside Naples. more like Neapolitan street kids,” many others — could see it Father Ortega (Alejandro Goic), shocking act of violence that leads Moreover, few would wander as Ward writes. sparked intense polemics. The Father Silva (Jaime Vadell) who to Sandokan being assaulted. As down the warren of Neapolitan Little wonder that his book is head of the Pio Monte society was had been an army chaplain, and Garcia patches up the beaten man streets to the church the way blurbed by the likes of Pete in favour, but other Neapolitans the addled elderly Father Ramirez and kisses his feet, he forces a Terence Ward did one day in Hamill, the famed chronicler of protested, loudly, and the idea to (Alejandro Sieveking). The nun, repentant deal on the club: they 1998. Stunned by what he found New York’s streets, and that at a move the painting outside the city Sister Monica (played by must take in Sandokan and care for in the painting, he was just as recent book party for Ward, Bible for the first time ever was quashed. Larraín’s wife Antonia Zegers), him, or else. captivated by the custodian of the scholar Elaine Pagels praised the Some alternatives have been takes charge of the housekeeping The movie closes with the church who stood guard in virtual author and artist (“It’s a story of proposed, such as recreating the duties as the men pass the time words of the liturgy: “Lamb of solitude: Angelo Esposito, a one - grace,” she said) while William painting as a “multisensory” work and indulge a rather unpenitential God, who takes away the sins of time city sewer worker who in Vendley, head of Religions for in Rome in which each act of passion for pet greyhound dogs the world, have mercy on us. Peace International, recounted mercy would be recreated for that they are preparing to com - Give us peace.” how much the story moved him. viewers to see and hear and pete in a national racing circuit. What Larraín exposes in The Are you Moving? “Irony is too meek a word for touch. But that doesn’t seem near - La Boca harbours a religious out - Club makes for very unsettling how mercy can penetrate its an - ly as attractive as contemplating post that has literally gone to the viewing. At times it may seem Please let us know a month tithesis,” he said. In San Francisco, the original. dogs. While house rules and like the church is just trying to in advance. California Gov. Jerry Brown — a “In the end, his art isn’t about obligatory prayers are observed, protect itself, to find a way to put Write to: Circulation Dept. former seminarian — and his wife bishops in silk robes giving hand - by and large this purgatorial all the bad publicity behind it. Prairie Messenger attended a lecture on the book. outs to the needy,” Esposito tells refuge has become a rather cozy But in the figure of Father Garcia Box 190 “What Caravaggio does is to Ward at one point. “It’s about hideaway from the residents’ there is both justice — an honest Muenster, Sask. S0K 2Y0 bring common men and women simple people helping one anoth - scandal-plagued pasts. accounting of guilt — and a path [email protected] into his paintings and make them er. He’s the artist of the poor. Our That is until another troubled to forgiveness. Undeliverable papers cost twice sacred,” Ward said at the New artist! There’s no one else like priest, Father Lazcano (Jose That is not such a bleak outlook as much to return. York book launch. “Which gives him. It’s all there! . . . What more Soza), arrives and their placid for what Pope Francis hopes will hope for us, no?” do you want?” existence is upset by a local fish - be a “church of mercy” for all. 10 Prairie Messenger DEEPENING OUR FAITH April 6, 2016 Easter: the voice waiting around the corner

Jesus to no longer fear death. We have an eternal inheri - “living in the thin places,” that is, living with confidence in tance waiting for us. St. Paul’s cry: “death where is your an eternal promise of Jesus. sting?” reminds us that while life on earth is short, we have Today’s Gospel takes us to a more personal level of faith; Liturgy an eternal banquet awaiting us “just around the corner”! that place where we hear the voice of Jesus speaking to us, The Easter season is filled with stories of encounters calling us, directing us toward his reign. “My sheep hear my and Life with the risen Lord. Like ripples in a lake, these stories voice. I know them and they follow me.” Jesus uses this give us a glimpse into the ever-expanding news of Jesus’ image of sheep and shepherd multiple times in the Gospels. triumph over sin and death. His appearances give renewed He knows his audience. It’s like using the images of fishing Deacon Bob Williston hope to his band of believers. He also prepares them for a in Newfoundland, grain farming on the prairies, ranching in time when they will no longer see him face to face. He Alberta, or forestry in British Columbia. These are all pillars invites them to listen for his voice. of the culture in a particular region. People from there share There’s a great Newfoundland song I often sing to my In our first reading today, Paul and Barnabas are look - in a common knowledge about how things go. grandchildren. Its called Sarah and its sung by the group ing for those who would be open to receiving this Good Everyone knew in Jesus’ day, how shepherds cared for called Buddy Whasisname and the Other Fellas. The cho - News. Finding the door closed with the Jewish leadership, their sheep. They knew that sheep shared a common pas - rus is an invite from Sarah’s boyfriend and somewhat they turn to the gentiles for a more receptive audience. ture with other flocks. They also knew that shepherds con - haunting: “Sarah, Sarah, won’t you come out tonight. trolled their own flock by the particular sound of their Sarah, Sarah, the moon is shining bright. Put your hat and Acts 13:14, 43-52 voice or whistle. So when a pasture land had given out, Fourth Sunday jacket on. Tell your mother you won’t be long. And I’ll be Psalm 100 and they had to travel to a new pasture, the shepherd of Easter waitin’ for you ’round the corner.” Revelation 7:9, 14b-17 would call his sheep. His sheep knew his voice and would April 17, 2016 My grandchildren now sing this song, complete with a John 10:27-30 respond by following him. slight Newfie accent! I once told my daughter that when I So here is the Easter question: Do you hear the voice of die, I want the last line of the chorus to be my epitaph: Although their message will cost them their lives, they Jesus? How is he calling you? Is his call a soft, gentle “I’ll be waitin’ for you ’round the corner.” Her response have great confidence in the promise of Jesus that eternal voice that beckons? Or is it a loud and thunderous voice? was: “Dad, that’s creepy!” life awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene who mistook him for a gardener, it But really, I think there’s something very deep about the The second reading is from the Book of Revelation. is often only when we hear him call us by name that we meaning and transition of our lives and how it’s tied up with This book in the Bible is meant to stir us into hope even recognize his presence. the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are told by when faced with persecution. Many in that generation of There are many voices clamouring for our attention, but courageous Christians died for their faith and are honoured the voice of Jesus is one we must hear through the din. Its a in a special way in heaven. “May the company of martyrs voice of beckoning, a voice of mercy, a voice of love. Williston is a retired Parish Life Director for the Diocese praise you!” So goes a litany of prayer and blessing. What Listen for it. You just might hear him softly sing with a of Saskatoon and a former missionary with the is held in balance here is a passion for living today against slight Newfie accent: “And I’ll be waitin’ for you ’round Redemptorists. He is also a song writer and recording artist. the backdrop of an eternal inheritance. The Irish call this the corner!” The constant resurrection of goodness speaks the truth about our world

Why does it spring up over and and that of our individual lives, is ly returned more committed than over again all over the earth, and already written — and it is a happy ever. They persecuted and killed In in every kind of situation? ending! We are already saved. his first disciples, but that only It springs up everywhere be - Goodness is guaranteed. Kindness served to spread his message. The cause God’s goodness and power will meet us. We only need to live churches have been unfaithful Exile lie at the source of all being and in the face of that wonderful truth. sometimes, but God just slipped life. This is what is revealed in the They couldn’t arrest Jesus, until away from those particular temple Ron Rolheiser, OMI resurrection of Jesus. What the res - he himself allowed it. They put his precincts. God has been declared urrection reveals is that the ultimate dead body in a tomb and sealed it dead countless time, but yet a bil - source of all that is, of all being and with a stone, but the stone rolled lion people just celebrated Easter. life, is gracious, good, and loving. away. His disciples abandoned Goodness cannot be killed. The stone that rolled away from hour had not yet come.” Why the Moreover, it also reveals that gra - him in his trials, but they eventual - Believe it! the tomb of Jesus continues to roll inability to take him captive? Was ciousness, goodness, and love are away from every sort of grave. Jesus so physically adept and elu - the ultimate power inside reality. Goodness cannot be held, captured sive that no one could imprison They will have the final word and or put to death. It evades its pur - him? they will never be captured, de - suers, escapes capture, slips away, These stories of his “slipping railed, killed or ultimately ignored. hides out, even leaves the churches away” are highly symbolic. The They will break through, ceaseless - BOSCO FOUNDATION sometimes, but forever rises, again lesson is not that Jesus was physi - ly, forever. In the end, too, as Imre John Bosco and again, all over the world. Such cally deft and elusive, but rather Kertesz suggests, they are more Child & Family Services Foundation is the meaning of the resurrection. that the Word of God, the grace fascinating than evil. Goodness cannot be captured or of God, the goodness of God, and And so we are in safe hands. The John Bosco Child and Family Services Foundation (Bosco killed. We see this already in the power of God can never be cap - No matter how bad the news on a Foundation) is a public foundation dedicated to the provision of earthly life of Jesus. There are a tured, held captive or ultimately given day, no matter how threat - buildings and facilities used for the treatment, education and number of passages in the Gospels killed. They are adept. They can ened our lives are on a given day, housing of children, adolescents and adults who are in need of that give the impression Jesus was never be held captive, can never no matter how intimidating the somehow highly elusive and diffi - be killed, and even when seem - neighbourhood or global bully, no support. cult to capture. It seems that until ingly they are killed, the stone matter how unjust and cruel a situ - Bosco Foundation believes in assisting non-profit and charitable Jesus consents to his own capture, that entombs them always eventu - ation, and no matter how omnipo - organizations who provide vital services which aid vulnerable nobody can lay a hand on him. We ally rolls back and releases them. tent are anger and hatred, love and people in our society. We do this by providing our facilities to see this played out a number of Goodness continues to resurrect goodness will reappear and ulti - various non-profit and charitable agencies at below market level times. Early on in his ministry, from every sort of grave. mately triumph. when his own townsfolk get upset And it is this, the constant res - Jesus taught that the source of rental rates. with his message and lead him to urrection of goodness, not that of all life and being is benign and lov - Our facilities are used for social services group care, foster the brow of a hill to hurl him to his viciousness and evil, which ing. He promised too that our end care, adult mental health care, the St. Francis Food Bank, two death, we are told that “he slipped speaks the deepest truth about our will be benign and loving. In the AA groups and a NE Edmonton cadet core among others. through the crowd and went world and our lives. The Jewish- resurrection of Jesus, God showed away.” Later when the authorities Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, that God has the power to deliver In addition, we provide volunteer services to assist two small non- try to arrest him we are told simply who won the Nobel Prize for liter - on that promise. Goodness and profit organizations working with low income seniors and victims that “he slipped away.” And, in yet ature in 2002, gives a poignant love will triumph! The ending of of stroke with fundraising and volunteer recruitment assistance. another incident when he is in the testimony of this. He had as a our story, both that of our world temple area and they try to arrest young boy been in a Nazi death The Bosco Foundation is currently working with a large service him, the text simply says that he camp, but what he remembered organization on a joint project with the aim of providing left the temple area and “no one NSPIRING most afterward from this experi - I affordable housing for low-income seniors. laid a hand upon him because his ence was not the injustice, cruelty ARE OF REATION and death he saw there, but rather “C C ” LASKA 100% of donations go toward charitable purposes. some acts of goodness, kindness A Administrative expenses are covered by other sources. Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and altruism he witnessed amidst Crystal Serenity Please forward your donation to: and award-winning author, is that evil. After the war, it left him UG president of the Oblate School of wanting to read the lives of saints A . 6 ­ 16, 2016 Bosco Foundation Theology in San Antonio, Texas. rather than biographies of war. + Denali National Park option 315-6770 129 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB T5C 1V7 He can be contacted through his The appearance of goodness fasci - Contact: Fr. R. Kleiter N website: www.ronrolheiser.com. nated him. To his mind, evil is Ministry to Tourism Tel: (780) 809-8585 Fax: (780) 809-8586 Follow Father Ron on Facebook: explicable, but goodness? Who [email protected] 306-244-3747 www.boscofoundation.com www.pilgrimjourneys.ca *Charitable Tax Number: 85985 8664 RT0001* www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser can explain it? What is its source? April 6, 2016 FEATURE Prairie Messenger 11 A few lost minutes altered a common Easter forever

By Michael Swan Dating Easter is a problem as in Egypt urging a common date The Catholic Register old as Christianity. Even the for Easter. Pope Tawadros II was Gospels don’t agree. In Matthew, acting on the same anxieties that The most significant 11 min - Mark and Luke the Last Supper prompted Catholic bishops of the utes and 48 seconds in the history takes place on the first day of Middle East gathered in Rome for of Christianity have been widen - Passover, which began this year the 2010 Synod on the Middle ing the gulf between Orthodox on Thursday, March 24. In the East to call for a common date for and western Christians since Gospel of John, the Last Supper Easter. 1582. But if Orthodox, Catholic, takes place on the evening before In the Middle East, where Anglican and Protestant Chris - Passover, Wednesday. Christians are increasingly a tians can get their act together, In the early church, when minority, a common date for the world’s Christians might Christianity was a Jewish move - Easter would be an important finally start celebrating Easter on ment, most Christians celebrated symbol of unity and a clear signal the same day. Easter on the first Sunday after to the Muslims who surround “I often wonder what it signals Passover. The Jewish lunar calen - Middle East Christians. A com - to the rest of the world that Chris- dar prevailed. But it did not bring mon date for Easter also means tians cannot assemble around a unity. common observance of Lent. common date for Easter,” said A group called the Quattuor - Parallel to Ramadan, the Christian Arch diocese of Toronto ecumeni - decimans insisted there was no season of fasting is recognized cal and interfaith affairs officer reason to do Easter on Sunday. and respected in the Muslim Rev. Damian MacPherson. They wanted it three days after world. It might be of no interest to non- Passover — the 14th of Nissan By chance, Orthodox and Christians, concedes MacPherson, according to the Jewish calendar. Catholic Easter do sometimes but it certainly matters to Christians By 325, when Emperor Con- coincide. They did in 2014 and who yearn for unity. stantine called the first ecumeni - will again next year. But after “I feel the division when we’re cal council in Nicea, Christians 2017 such serendipity will not not able to do a common liturgy on all over Europe, the Middle East visit again for another 17 years. a common date around the most and North Africa had a wide vari - Irénée isn’t holding his breath. significant event in our history — ety of dates for Easter. The only resolution, as far as the resurrection,” MacPherson said. “People were celebrating all Anne Wicks Orthodox bishop is concerned, has Speaking to a gathering of kinds of dates, whether it was in nothing to do with science or the CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION — For those Christians who priests last year, Pope Francis the British Isles or Spain or Italy, World Council of Churches agree - desire unity, a common Easter date matters a great deal, says said he was open to changing the North Africa, Jerusalem,” said Archdiocese of Toronto ecumenical and interfaith affairs officer Rev. ment in Aleppo or the ecumenical date of Easter in the West so that Orthodox Church of America Damian MacPherson. movement. Rome must re-adopt all Christians around the world Archbishop of Canada Irénée the Julian calendar and fall into can celebrate on the same day. On Rochon. “Everybody had their should rule and ordered a 10-day Aleppo, Syria, came up with a line with Orthodox practice based June 12, 2015, he said, “We have own way of calculating.” correction. That was the begin - formula for calculating Easter on the Council of Nicea. to come to an agreement.” So the first order of business at ning of the Gregorian calendar, completely divorced from both “The western, Gregorian calen - He joked that the current situa - Nicea was a common date for which today rules in the secular the Gregorian and Julian calen - dar, which came about in the 16th tion causes confusion because it Easter. Easter would be on the order the world over. It actually dars. Since the Council of Nicea century, was a unilateral thing by allows Christians to say to one first Sunday after the first full took until 1752 for the British used the science of its day to the church of Rome,” said Irénée. another: “When did Christ rise moon of the spring equinox. The Empire to bow to a papal decision determine the vernal equinox, the “The Orthodox Church never from the dead? My Christ rose Spring Equinox was determined on the calendar, and Greece churches today should rely on the accepted this change for the pas - today, and yours next week.” to be March 21 on the Julian cal - didn’t budge until 1923. science of our own time, said the cal date because this was some - In January, Archbishop of endar. That was the common cal - Because the Julian calendar Aleppo statement on Easter. thing agreed upon by the whole Canterbury Justin Welby said endar for the civilized world at always observes a leap year every Whatever the calendar date church and only the whole church Anglican leaders were willing to the time, in use since Emperor four years, the gap between the may be, the vernal equinox can change it.” join the discussions for a unified Caesar Augustus decreed it calendars has been widening. The should be determined scientifical - Which means that another ecu - date. He said he had discussed the should be the standard in AD 46. Gregorian calendar skips one leap ly by astronomers. Once the menical council of both western subject with Pope Francis, Coptic By 1582 Renaissance astrono- year every century. Thus, by the equinox is decided, Christians and eastern churches could decide leader Pope Tawadros and mers knew there was something time the King of England went should look for the first full moon again on the date of Easter. Though Orthodox Church leader Patriarch wrong with the Julian calendar. Gregorian the British had to drop in Jerusalem — the city where the Orthodox will hold their largest Bartholomew, and hoped a It was off by 11 minutes and 11 days from their 1752 calendar Christ actually rose from the and most significant synod in near - change would occur within 10 48 seconds per year. Pope and the Greeks in 1923 had to dead. Easter is on the Sunday ly 1,000 years on the island of years. Gregory XIII decided science drop 13 days. By 2100 the gap after that — according to the Crete this June, the date of Easter will be 14 days. Council of Nicea formula. has been excluded from the agenda. Generally, the Orthodox cele - The Aleppo solution was her - Neither the pope nor the Ecu - brate Pascha (the Greek word for alded as a great breakthrough, but menical Patriarch of Constanti - Easter) one to five weeks after the none of the churches represented nople can simply call an ecu - western world celebrates Easter. at the World Council of Churches menical council. The first ecu - But there’s reason to hope East gathering in Syria that year actu - menical councils were called by and West can get back on the ally followed through. emperors, but since then the same page. However, in 2015 the Pope of Orthodox practice has been that In 1997 a meeting convened by Alexandria, head of the Orthodox only a council of the entire the World Council of Churches in Copts, wrote to the papal nuncio church can declare a previous council ecumenical, said Irénée. It is the Slavic Orthodox, prin - cipally the Russians, who object NOW AVAILABLE to any move toward a common e-Edition subscriptions date. For many of them their own visit: www.pmonline.ca date for Easter has become a mark for more information of Orthodox identity, distinguish - Receive 45 issues per year ing them from Rome and the Protestants. The Middle Eastern Mail coupon to: Prairie Messenger, Circulation Dept. and other Orthodox (Syriac, Box 190, Muenster, SK S0K 2Y0 Armenian, Jacobite, Ethiopian, Phone: (306) 682-1772 Fax: (306) 682-5285 Coptic) would gladly talk about a email: [email protected] common date and are generally J One Year $37.00 J Two Years $67.00 much more open to ecumenism. J U.S. $126.00 J Foreign $152.00 “The Holy Spirit can move,” Applicable tax included said Irénée, whose church began J New J Renewal with the Russian Orthodox living in 19th-century Alaska. “(She) Name: ______can move and melt the hearts of people. So we will see. You can Address: ______never say never.” “I don’t know whether it’s a City/Town: ______Prov: ______measure of pride or of fidelity, Postal Code: ______Tel: ______quite frankly,” said MacPherson. “It would seem that there’s a Visa/MC: ______Expiry: ______value, a real value, to sharing a common date for Easter.” 12 Prairie Messenger FEATURE April 6, 2016 Post-Christian world remakes language of human rights

By Michael Swan tailed in being human in theologi - on everybody else for that matter, The Catholic Register cal terms. not to kill me.” “A person’s rightful due is to A right to assisted suicide The Supreme Court ruling that be treated as an object of love, not which creates a duty for a doctor legalized assisted suicide last year as an object for use,” he wrote. or nurse to kill you cannot be didn’t just find a technical prob - It is nearly impossible to imag - construed as a human right, be- lem in the wording of the ine how Catholics could speak cause human rights cannot have Criminal Code. It said that Cana - about public issues of morality anti-human outcomes, Boyle rea - dians have a right to ask for and without talking about rights. sons. receive state-sanctioned aid in “(Without rights) you would Forcing doctors and others to killing themselves under certain have to rewrite the catechism. violate their conscience to satisfy circumstances. You would have to rewrite all of an individual’s request exposes What kind of right is the right to these encyclicals that have been any legal right to assisted suicide kill yourself, or to have someone coming out the last 100 years,” as something different from else kill you? How can a right that said Kostelecky. human rights. The problem is that obligates a third party to kill you be Instead of arguing that human courts, legislatures, academics called a human right? Does insist - rights are a fiction, or railing and journalists who claim the ing that assisted death is a humane against courts and legislatures high ground of human rights do action make it a human right? that interpret rights differently, not know the Christian origins of The court’s answer is that Catho lics need to make better the idea, said Kostelecky. assisted suicide is a Charter right THEORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS — “The legal theory of human arguments about why a request to “We take a concept that comes found in Sections 7 and 15 of the rights is generally traced back earlier than the American and French kill yourself or to kill a fetus is to us through the distinct Chris - revolutions, to the writing and campaigning of Dominican preacher Canadian Charter of Rights and not a right, said Joe Boyle, emeri - tian heritage and hollow it out of and Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas,” writes Michael Swan. “De las its original meaning and pass it Freedoms. Those sections guaran - Casas witnessed the treatment of native American slaves on Spanish tus professor of philosophy at tee the right to “life, liberty and encomiendas in the New World of the 16th century and he knew evil Toronto’s Uni versity of St. on without realizing that it was, security of person” and a right to when he saw it.” Michael’s College. in its genesis, a Christian concept. “equality.” “The fact of the matter is that But we’re in a post-Christian Charter rights are important, Rights, after all, are bare mini - hold and believe their religion. you still do need rights, even if world that doesn’t understand that but they aren’t necessarily equiv - mums. A right to life is just a mini - But the Catholic embrace of the rights that people think stuff,” he said. alent to universal human rights. mum standard that says other peo - rights was really confirmed fur - you’ve got are not properly justi - We must ask a question about Charter rights underpin the ple may not kill you. A right to free ther back, in 1891, when Pope fied,” said Boyle. the purpose of human rights. Canadian constitution and are speech means only that you cannot Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum , To know whether a right really Looking back at the Universal essential to how Canadian courts be arbitrarily silenced. Property which re-imagined the Industrial is a right, look on the flip side at Declaration of Human Rights, the interpret and apply common law. rights are a minimum standard that Revolution with human rights — duties. Every right we hold cre - final result sought by Maritain, The problem is that Charter rights holds your property may not be property rights, the right of work - ates a duty on the part of other Canadian legal scholar John sound like universal human seized without compensation. ers to associate and act collective - people. Humphrey and Soviet diplomat rights, and that has made it easy But MacIntyre’s interpretation ly, the right of society to collec - “If somebody has a right then Alexander Bogomolov was a for pro-euthanasia forces to inac - of the Enlightenment and moder - tively regulate the economy for somebody else has a duty,” said world where the Holocaust could curately portray the Catholic nity is at odds with the church’s the common good. Catholic Boyle. “And that duty is not never happen again. The purpose position against assisted killing as history of social teaching. philosopher Jacques Maritain was based on the fact that the king of human rights at that point was being opposed to human rights. The legal theory of human among the principal authors of said so or God says so, but on to create a better world, better Society must maintain a distinc - rights is generally traced back the United Nations Universal something about the person who human societies. It wasn’t about tion between legal rights and earlier than the American and Declaration of Human Rights has the right. If I have a right to individuals and individual choic - human rights. Legal rights are French revolutions, to the writing after the Second World War. In life there’s something about my es. It was about how we choose, rights enshrined to keep the mecha - and campaigning of Dominican Love and Responsibility, St. John right that makes a claim on you, collectively, to be a fully human nism of the legal system working. preacher and Bishop Bartolomé Paul II spoke of the rights en - that imposes a duty on you, and society. Human rights are rights that pre- de las Casas. De las Casas wit - date the law, constitutions and legal nessed the treatment of native institutions. You have human rights American slaves on Spanish because you are human and they encomiendas in the New World are there to ensure the fullest possi - of the 16th century and he knew ble flourishing of your humanity. evil when he saw it. Influenced Some contemporary Catholic by the philosophy of St. Thomas thinkers believe the church is Aquinas, de las Casas argued that handicapped in modern debates the native people deserved their about public morality because it freedom and their land, along has accepted the idea and the sec - with the protection of both the ular language of human rights. church and the king, for no other Even though the concept of rights reason than that they were human has deep roots in the church, beings. some Catholics insist that human This was a whole new notion of rights are foreign to Christian rights. Prior to de las Casas, the thought and tradition. This view church spoke of rights as a feature was expressed in Alasdair of a person’s job or office. Bishops MacIntyre’s influential book had certain rights the king must After Virtue. The conservative acknowledge and priests had rights philosopher asserted that human their bishop must respect. This rights are a fiction from the 18th- idea of rights was mostly derived century Enlightenment which from Roman law and was we’ve been duped into believing. expressed in the church’s canon “There are no such rights, and law. De las Casas began to express belief in them is one with belief rights in theological language. in witches and in unicorns,” “The church has a really good wrote MacIntyre, a Scottish con - answer for the ground of our vert to Catholicism. rights,” said Matthew Kostelecky, If the framers of the American a philosophy professor at St. Declaration of Independence and Joseph’s College, University of the French philosophers who Alberta. “It’s because we are made inspired them really thought in the image and the likeness of human rights were “self-evident God. It’s a good answer insofar as truths,” they were wrong, accord - it is straightforward. There it is.” ing to MacIntrye. “There are no In Catholic social thinking the self-evident truths,” he said. idea of human rights developed Instead of trying to distinguish slowly over time. As late as the good actions from bad actions by 1950s some theologians argued appealing to rights, the Christian against freedom of religion. That tradition defines the good. Only nonsense ended with the Second then does it judge individual acts Vatican Council. In Dignitatis good or evil by measuring them Humanae church fathers reasoned against Christian ideals. We call that if religion is part of what these ideals virtues. This is the makes us human, it follows human idea behind “virtue ethics.” beings have a right to practise,

April 6, 2016 CHURCH AT HOME Prairie Messenger 13 Yearning for ritual leads to Catholic Church

had each rejected the stern institu - tional Protestantism they had grown up with, and Easter to them Around the was a private matter between the individual and God. There was Kitchen Table always company for supper, but we never went to church. When my parents were first Donald Ward married they were interested in the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, and when they moved We had a quiet Easter this and a profusion of chocolate. At west from Ontario in 1948 they year. I had bought an enormous the conclusion of the meal I was attended meetings regularly in ham, expecting the usual crowd, so stuffed I could hardly breathe. Borden, a small community 50 km but in the end it was just Colleen, Compared to breakfast, supper northwest of Saskatoon. They our daughters, and me. Brigid and was almost anticlimactic, though would drive out Sunday morning Caitlin are vegetarians, so the Caitlin had baked a dessert — and often not return until after ham seemed like overkill. I cut a something called Bienenstich , or dark, so busy was the community few slices off one end and put the bee sting cake, a rich confection on the Sabbath. It was quite a com - rest away for another occasion. filled with pastry cream, made mitment for a young couple with a Thank God for freezers. from scratch with honey and growing family, and as the children Brigid and Caitlin both read at almonds. There were potatoes increased in number it became the Easter Vigil, leaving them and green vegetables to go with increasingly difficult to follow the Design Pics ritual. Ironically, it was the lack of free to create a sumptuous break - the ham, plus a tofu creation that RITUALS OF FAITH — The rituals surrounding a celebration like ritual in the Quaker faith that had fast Sunday morning. They had tasted surprisingly like sausage. Easter — baking, preparing food for the feast, colouring eggs, attend - spent Holy Saturday baking, as We sat at the table long after attracted them in the first place. ing church services — are special times. they do every year when they are the meal was over, reminiscing Listening to my daughters together, so there was Easter about childhood and talking about speak of their own faith and the Pilate. It obviously made a deep for it was never explicitly taught bread and hot cross buns, plus Easter rituals. I had little to share, importance they place on ritual impression on me or I wouldn’t to me. It must have made a sort of fresh fruit and coloured eggs, cof - for my parents did not celebrate led me to reflect that I had missed remember it so vividly 57 years sense at the time, though I fee with cream, cheese and fruit, Easter as a Christian feast. They a lot as a child. I don’t remember later, but when I was a child Good remember thinking it was an odd my parents explicitly teaching me Friday was just a day off school, way to address the deity. anything about Easter. followed by the Easter holidays. I Looking back, it is easy to see I remember my Grade 1 teacher had no clear understanding of the a yearning for ritual in my child - reading from the Passion in class. crucifixion or the resurrection. hood. I think it is a human long - She delivered the words in a voice I learned the Lord’s Prayer at ing, for there is comfort in com - filled with drama and emotion, school, too, more or less by osmo - munity and we instinctively try to gesticulating with one hand as she sis. We recited it every morning in create it when it is not there. My Retreats & Workshops held the Bible in the other. I can the King James version: “Our parents rejected ritual in the prac - hear her now: “Crucify him! Father, which art in heaven. . . .” tice of their faith, and as a result Letters from Prison — Pastor Vern Ratzlaff Crucify him!” the rabble shouted For a long time I thought it was they were unable to share their Sunday afternoons, April 10, 17, 24 & May 1, 8. 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. when Christ was brought before “Our Father, we chart in heaven,” faith with their children. Cost: $10/session or $30 for the series. It was the yearning for ritual Knights of Columbus Brothers Keeper Breakfast that led me eventually to the Second Tuesday of each month, next gathering April 12. Catholic Church, and which was 7 a.m. - 8 a.m., followed by breakfast and fellowship. later reflected in the raising of my Life Beyond Sixty — Dr. Del Haug own children. 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New pastoral issues providers are beginning to struggle with. They are new the decision remains between the person and God, dilemmas. Some guidelines are beginning to emerge. and the priest cannot talk about it,” she added. “I New legal ramifications coming into effect June Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa did don’t think we ought to ever decide what should hap - 6 with the legalization of assisted suicide in Canada not specifically address the pastoral implications of pen in the internal forum between the mercy of God will have consequences not only for medical staff but assisted suicide in a letter read at all masses in the and a priest working with someone.” also for the clergy. archdiocese March 5 - 6. But he said, “From not only Marie T. Hilliard, director of bioethics and public The Special Joint Committee of the Government a Catholic perspective but any rational perspective, policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Centre in of Canada on Physician-Assisted Dying released its the intentional, wilful act of killing oneself or anoth - Philadelphia, also said the question is not a matter of report, Medical Assistance in Dying: A Patient- er human being is clearly morally wrong.” ethics but of “the governance of the church in terms Centred Approach, on Feb. 25. The report recom - He quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, of access to sacraments.” mended a broad approach to legally mandated physi - which says, “Whatever its motives and means, direct “The denial of absolution is not at all our call at cian-assisted death. euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of the NCBC, nor the call of any one ethicist, but the In their pastoral statement Feb. 26 in response to handicapped, sick or dying persons. It is morally judgment of the confessor at the time, considering the committee’s report, the Canadian bishops said, unacceptable.” the intention of the penitent to reform,” she said. “The teaching of the Catholic Church and the stance In an interview with Canadian Catholic News, As medical and religious leaders ponder these of the Catholic bishops of Canada are clear. Suicide Prendergast said those who choose to participate in new questions, it is clear that Catholics need to be is not part of health care. Killing the mentally and assisted suicide do not have “the proper disposition clear about what the church now teaches about end- physically ill, whether young or aged, is contrary to for the anointing of the sick.” The rite is “for people of-life decisions. There is no obligation to undergo caring for and loving one’s brother and sister.” The who are gravely ill or labour under the burden of “massive amounts of intrusive but futile care” at the bishops disagreed that the report’s recommendations years, and it contains the forgiveness of sins as part end of life, Keehan said. “We are finding over and are “patient-centred.” of the rite,” he added. “But we cannot be forgiven over again that there are misunderstandings about Dr. Vivian Walker, co-director of palliative care pre-emptively for something we are going to do, like dying and that the church’s teaching gets misrepre - at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon commented in the ask for assisted suicide when suicide is a grave sin.” sented and misunderstood,” she said. March 16 PM: “The seismic shift in our culture The Code of Canon Law says anointing of the “People need to understand that when they are toward physician-hastened or physician-assisted sick “is not to be conferred upon those who perse - “fully in control” of their thought processes and their death is big, especially in the context of what we vere obstinately in manifest grave sin.” But the 1983 faculties, their wishes and autonomy are going to be know to be poorly accessible palliative care services code dropped a norm from the 1917 code that had respected, she said. “Dying patients have a right to nationwide.” denied a Catholic funeral to those “who killed them - make those choices” or designate someone to make This seismic shift is creating pastoral dilemmas selves by deliberate counsel.” those decisions for them. for clergy and pastoral workers. Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who “The church does not advocate prolonging life at What should a hospital chaplain do if a patient is president and CEO of the American Catholic any cost,” Prendergast noted. “Rather, the church is expresses a determination to use assisted suicide? Can Health Association, isn’t so sure the answer is clear guided by the principle of the quality of life that con - anointing of the sick be given to such a patient? How cut. “At this point in time, you really can’t give an siders the whole person and not simply keeping the do pastors decide whether a person who carried out answer,” she told Catholic News Service. body going no matter what.” an assisted suicide should receive a Catholic funeral? “If someone confessed or told a priest about their Assisted suicide will soon be legal. We have to These are questions bishops, priests and health care individual situation, their individual culpability about deal with how to handle it morally. — PWN Canadians need to expand the narrow, distorted history they learned

By Bishop Donald Bolen, Over the past seven years, the tion, and in a systemic racism to school, and its Final Report about a painful awakening for Saskatoon Truth and Reconciliation Com - embedded in societal structures calls all of Canada to a profound many Catholics, whose church mission has challenged the often and attitudes. The TRC process examination of conscience. As a boy growing up on a farm narrow or distorted ways in has taken Canadian citizens back The TRC process has brought — CHILDREN , page 15 in Saskatchewan, my telling of the which we have told the story of history of that place began with the our nation and of European and arrival of my grandparents and immigrant settlement here. After First Nations thriving in Saskatchewan great-grandparents. Last summer I hearing from over 6,000 witness - learned that the oldest traces of set - es, the TRC process and its Final By Ravina Bains and However, the one jurisdiction that Unlike provinces like B.C., tlement in the province, dating to Report have given witness to a Taylor Jackson, Vancouver may be the exception to that rule Saskatchewan is covered by his - about 8,500 years ago, were only a particularly painful part of our Troy Media is the land of living skies, toric treaties and Treaty Land half hour from our farm. I had no history: the waves of suffering Saskatchewan. Entitlement agreements. These idea of that larger history of indige - that accompanied the Indian Act We often hear about First In Saskatchewan there are agreements allow First Nations to nous peoples on the prairies. and the residential schools. Nation communities in Canada countless examples of First purchase Crown land anywhere in That hidden history continues opposing natural resource pro - Nations communities working in Saskatchewan to convert to re - to resonate in our Canadian pre - jects. Whether it’s an LNG plant partnership with mining compa - serve land, providing land cer - Bolen is chair of the Com - sent — in broken communities in British Columbia or mining nies to bring projects to fruition. tainty not currently found in mission for Justice and Peace of and struggling families, in high projects in eastern Canada, the In fact, there are more than 45 provinces like B.C., where more the Canadian Conference of incarceration and suicide rates news is full of First Nation oppo - mining partnerships between First than 100 per cent of the land is Catholic Bishops. among our indigenous popula - sition to resource development. Nations and resource companies under claim with very few his - in Saskatchewan. For example, toric or modern treaties. Muskowekwan First Nation and And First Nations partnerships Encanto, a Vancouver-based com - and land certainty are two of the pany, are undertaking a joint ven - things that have made Saskatche- ture to develop the first on- wan the most attractive province reserve potash mine in Canada for mining investment. that will generate 2.8 million tons In 2015, as in 2014, Sas katch- of potash annually and create ewan was not only the most approximately 1,000 jobs. Just attractive jurisdiction for mining recently, English River First investment in Canada but also the Nation and Peter Ballantyne Cree second most attractive jurisdic - Nation acquired 30 per cent of tion in the world, according to the JNE Welding, a company that Fraser Institute’s annual mining manufactures steel vessels for survey. mining companies. With these Saskatchewan is also one of types of partnerships it’s no sur - the only jurisdictions in Canada prise that the mining sector is the where uncertainty surrounding largest private-sector employer of disputed land claims is not a sig - aboriginal people. nificant barrier to investment in But what helps make Sas- the mining sector. In fact, Sas - katchewan an attractive jurisdic - katchewan has the highest per - tion for mining investment from centage of respondents across all both First Nations and resource Canadian jurisdictions that view companies? the situation regarding disputed land claims as an encouragement to investment at 22 per cent. Bains is the associate director The province’s standing on CNS/Fehim Demir, EPA of the Centre for Aboriginal this measure has also been im - BOSNIA GENOCIDE — Victims’ pictures are displayed on a table in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Policy Studies and Jackson is a proving. Back in 2012, only 16 people watch a TV broadcast of an international tribunal in the Netherlands March 24. Radovan Karadzic, policy analyst in the Centre for per cent of respondents for Sas - a former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted of genocide and nine other charges for orchestrating a cam - Natural Resources at the Fraser paign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992 - 95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Institute. www.troymedia.com — POSITIVE , page 15 April 6, 2016 LETTERS Prairie Messenger 15

People who break rules need ministry of mercy from church

The Editor: I am in agree - back to a patriarchal-rule-bound compassion and inclusion. We as ment with Cardinal Collins and church that tosses into the People of God are called to be Archbishop Prendergast that garbage of broken rules those that presence especially in a med - assisted dying is a serious issue who do not conform to rigid ical world that often forces us to that requires much thought and rules? live and does not allow us to die reflection.There are many discus - Where is the church of mercy with all kinds of drugs and sions and government papers Pope Francis desires for all of us? research to prolong life. dealing with that. Who are we to judge? Palliative care, healing pres - However, I am in disagree - Clergy and pastoral care work - ence and listening are the gifts we ment with Prendergast’s mention ers have the ministry of Jesus at all need in accompanying those that those who choose to have their core. How often Jesus min - who are dying. But what if the assisted dying be excluded from gled with the broken, rejected, pain is not alleviated and end - the healing rites, communion and rule breakers without judgment less? — Helena Robb, Orleans, funerals in the church. Are we but with a listening presence, Ont. Children forbidden to speak their language Anne Wicks

Continued from page 14 lic Church, along with other lenged by a student who attended Easter Mountain Chris tian churches, has strongly the same school but had a very was involved in running 60 per supported the TRC process. different (and negative) experi - As dusk settles over cent of the Indian residential One of the challenges faced by ence. The Report points to their the blue mountains schools. We heard how children the Catholics has been how to “seemingly irreconcilable” ac - I drop my pack were in many instances forcibly come to terms with the history of counts and experiences as “a stark near the garden removed and taken great dis - our involvement in residential reminder that there are no easy at the end of my hike. tances from their families, forbid - schools without adopting a defen - shortcuts to reconciliation” (Vol. den to speak their languages and sive posture, but also without 6, pp. 10-11). Through the long night prevented from learning about scapegoating or “throwing under While visiting Saskatoon in I sit alone by the fire their culture in a system expressly the bus” the many priests, mem - 2014 for an event entitled 10,000 waiting as smoke flows established for their assimilation. bers of religious communities, and Healing Steps, TRC Commis- over the darkness of Many students suffered physical laypeople who served at the sioner Justice Murray Sinclair earth and sky. and emotional abuse, and there schools, or who worked with spoke of the experience of shame was a deeply disturbing number Canada’s indigenous peoples over that many now feel regarding the Then as dawn approaches of students who were sexually the last four centuries. The fact that residential school legacy, and a warm scent sifts through the redwoods abused. Students grew up in an the residential school system was stated: “you should not feel I waken, rub my eyes, institutional environment where misguided and deeply flawed, and ashamed about this, you should they learned little about normal that some who worked at the feel committed to doing some - then stand and bow family life or how to be a parent. schools committed terrible deeds, thing about it. Shame will get us before the mighty wind The primary interest of the does not nullify the truth that oth - nowhere; guilt will get us no - coming through TRC was to bring to light the res - ers served there generously, with where. . . . We must commit to the world. idential school system’s legacy of self-sacrifice and good intentions. working together to fix this.” hurt and alienation, by providing The TRC’s Final Report gives The TRC’s Final Report and By Michael Dallaire survivors with an opportunity to a telling account of the regional Calls to Action do not give up on tell their stories in a non-adver - event in Victoria, where the supe - the churches who were involved sarial context. Creating a space rior of a Catholic religious com - with the residential schools. Rather, Positive trend in Saskatchewan for telling those stories of suffer - munity gave an account of his they call us to integrity by owning ing is indispensable to healing experience of serving at a resi - past sins and mistakes, and to be and reconciliation, and the Catho - dential school, and was chal - actively engaged in the process of Continued from page 14 that they would not pursue invest - reconciliation and of building a bet - ment in B.C. because of disputed ter future. That approach is laud - katchewan reported that the situa - land claims. Fast forward to 2015 able and to be welcomed. tion surrounding disputed land and this number has risen to 13 On March 29, Catholic re - claims was encouraging invest - per cent. sponses were published address - ment. No respondents for Saskatche - ing two of the TRC’s Calls to This positive trend for Sas - wan said that uncertainty arising Action: one responding to the katchewan stands in stark contrast from disputed land claims would invitation to repudiate concepts to how disputed land claims are lead them to not pursue invest - used to justify European sover - affecting the perceptions of miners ment in the province, and of those eignty over indigenous lands and in B.C. In 2013 in B.C., 69 per cent who did say that disputed land Retreats | Spiritual Direction | Facility Rentals peoples, the other endorsing the of respondents found disputed land claims were a deterrent to invest - United Nations Declaration on the claims to be a deterrent to invest - ment, the vast majority noted it Rights of Indigenous Peoples. ment. This increased to 73 per cent was only a minor deterrent. Presence Program More responses will be forthcom - of respondents in 2014 and finally Through its consistent high ing, not only in written form, but reached 77 per cent in 2015. ranking in the annual Fraser Insti - also through a deeper engagement And it’s not just that more and tute Mining Survey, Saskatche - Called in Love, Sent to Serve with indigenous people as we look more miners are finding that dis - wan has demonstrated that land to strengthen relationships, stand puted land claims are hurting certainty and positive partnerships Spiritual Director Formation Program in solidarity in the pursuit of jus - B.C.’s investment climate; it’s with First Nations help make the A Two-Year, Part Time Program tice, and take other small steps on also the extent to which they say province one of the most attrac - the long walk toward healing and it’s hurting. In 2013, only six per tive jurisdictions in the world for reconciliation in our nation. cent of potential investors said mining investment. REGISTER NOW FOR 2016-2018 Program Letters to the editor Application Deadline: April 29, 2016 We welcome your response to articles published in the Prairie Messenger. Two-way commu - nication assures everyone of a better exposure to the truth. For an application package call Kathy 780-701-1854 We cannot publish any letters to the editor unless you give us your full name, your address and your telephone number. (It is especially important to remember this if you are sending your For more information call Debbie 780-701-1853 comments by email) . Online www.providencerenewal.ca Due to limited space we ask you to keep your letters short — 300 to 350 words maximum. The Prairie Messenger reserves the right to edit letters to conform to space requirements and newspaper style .

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By Beth Griffin He said various armed groups and their families in a unique Sister Mary Angel Acayo, a and held for six years by the Lord’s are now intentionally targeting way,” he said. “This violence has Little Sister of the Immaculate Resistance Army. She was abused, UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — non-soldiers as part of a concrete long-term, even lifelong, traumat - Heart from Gulu, Uganda, de - enslaved and forced to train as a Sexual violence against women is strategy to humiliate and terrify ic effects of women and girls in scribed cultural practices that sup - soldier. Other girls who refused one of history’s great silences. It is a innocent women and girls by terms of the stigmatization and port sexual violence against women were hacked to death in front of crime against humanity, happening rape, sexual assault, torture and exclusion that often follows.” and girls among the Karamojong them, she said. Grace became on an unfathomable scale and has human trafficking. In addition, people of northern Uganda. pregnant. She and her child were become a systematic, dramatically women and girls are “bought and Acayo said rape is considered rescued by government troops dur - underreported tactic of conflict, said sold or even given as gifts or tro - an acceptable practice among the ing an ambush and brought to a Archbishop Bernardito Auza. phies to warring soldiers.” Karamojong after a boy or man community centre where Acayo He spoke at a March 22 event Since the early 1990s, the identifies a girl as a potential wife. treated her. to mark the 60th session of the United Nations and the Inter - Describing it as “marriage through Grace completed her education UN Commission on the Status of national Criminal Court have rape,” Acayo said, “He can take and works at a secondary school. Women. characterized rape and sexual vio - her at any time without her con - She was scheduled to be a pan - The permanent observer of the lence against women and girls in sent. It can be an ambush when elist at the UN event, but was un - Holy See to the United Nations violent conflicts a crime against she goes to fetch water or fire - able to get a visa. was joined on a panel by Catholic humanity alongside torture and wood. His friends hold her down. Acayo said the Catholic women who work with victims of extermination, Auza said. In a Boys consider their marriage to Church and other organizations violence in Uganda and the 2015 report, the UN secretary begin when they have sex.” provide counselling, education Demo cratic Republic of Congo. general detailed 19 countries in If a girl reports the rape to her and training to empower girls and The Holy See mission sponsored which such violence is used as a family, she is beaten, and she has women and reduce dependency. the discussion on Women and systematic tactic. to marry the boy because if she She also works with community Girls: Victims of Rape and Other Auza described the “unfath - does not, her family is denied a elders to try to sensitize them Forms of Sexual Violence in omable scale” of violence. “Be - dowry, Acayo said. against rape. Conflict. tween 250,000 and 500,000 women Northern Uganda is a strong - According to Acayo, Arch bish - Auza said the Catholic Church and girls were raped in 1994 in the hold for the Lord’s Resistance op John Baptist Odama of Gulu is present and runs a network of Rwandan genocide. In the Demo - Army, a terrorist group fighting in prevented sexual assaults on chil - institutions to provide essential cratic Republic of Congo, 1,100 several African countries. Acayo dren by repeatedly staying over - health care and support in most of rapes are being reported each told the chilling story of Grace, a night with them in a retail area the areas of conflict. He said month and hundreds of thousands girl who was abducted at age 14 known for human trafficking. Catholic organizations and agen - since armed conflict began. cies also “promote programs “Boko Haram is raiding whole CNS file Fair trade shop is a ministry, aimed at preventing such violence schools and ISIS (Islamic State) MOTHER ANGELICA DIES — and ensuring women’s dignity and is openly ‘selling’ Yezidi and Mother Angelica, founder of Eternal Word Television Net work, effective role in society while Chris tian women and girls as for husband-and-wife team is pictured in an undated photo. addressing the deeper causes of young as eight, ‘giving’ them to She died March 27 at the Poor violence against women and ISIS fighters as gifts, and using Clares of Perpetual Adora tion By Denis Grasska home and garden decor, Nativity girls.” them as a recruitment strategy in monastery in Hanceville, Ala. She sets and other holiday items, The nuncio said direct target - its propaganda materials,” he was 92. Feisty and outspoken, she SAN DIEGO (CNS) — After chocolate, clothing, accessories ing of non-combatants was for - continued. was a major controversial figure in three years of working for such as jewelry, scarves, hats and merly considered off-limits in “All violence against human the U.S. church in the closing Catholic Relief Services promot - belts, and even musical instru - warfare, but “that essential ethical life is terrible, but sexual violence decades of the 20th century. A 2001 ing the fair trade movement, ments, like pan flutes, recorders frontier has been getting ignored is designed to debase, dehuman - stroke left her with partial paraly - Evangely Aliangan Ward decided and whistles. and in many cases mocked.” ize, and demoralize women, girls sis and a speech impediment. she could do more. “We try to think of all members So, in late 2010, she founded of the family” when placing orders U.S. Court seeks alternative coverage Around the World Gifts. Located with fair trade vendors, said in Old Town San Diego, nestled Evangely, whose awareness of fair among an assortment of shops and trade came about through her By Carol Zimmermann to this coverage. provided health insurance. restaurants, the gift shop sells only employment with CRS from 2007 The order was released the after - Religious groups who did not items that are certified “fair trade,” to 2010. CRS is the U.S. bishops’ WASHINGTON (CNS) — noon of March 29, just six days fit the narrow exemption to the meaning that they were produced overseas relief and development Less than a week after the after the justices heard oral argu - contraceptive mandate given to in an environmentally friendly agency, and among its many pro - Supreme Court heard oral argu - ments in Zubik vs. Burwell, a con - churches and religious groups manner by artisans and farmers in jects, it is a strong proponent of the ments about the Affordable Care solidated case involving the Little argue that they cannot participate developing countries who received fair trade movement. Act’s contraceptive requirement, Sisters of the Poor, Priests for Life, in providing contraceptives with - fair wages for their labour. “When I learned what fair the court released an order re - the Pennsylvania dioceses of Pittsb - out violating their beliefs and that For Evangely and her husband, trade really is, it made sense,” she questing that additional briefs be urgh and Erie, and the Archdiocese the Obama administration’s Gerrit Ward, who manages the said. “To think of the artisans in submitted showing if and how of Washington. The groups are “work-around” allowing them to shop, Around the World Gifts is developing countries, the children contraceptive insurance coverage challenging the Affordable Care acknowledge their opposition and more than just a business. that are being worked when they could be obtained by employees Act’s mandate that most religious thereby trigger an arrangement “This is a ministry,” Evangely should be in school; to think of through their insurance compa - and other employers must cover for a third party to provide the told The Southern Cross, newspa - the men and women that are nies without directly involving contraceptives, sterilization and coverage is still objectionable. per of the Diocese of San Diego. working so hard and are treated so the religious employers objecting abortifacients through employer- The court’s March 29 order “It’s a place where I can bring my wrong, are not paid even a portion specifically outlined the proce - faith and my beliefs. It’s a place of what they deserve, what their dures that objecting religious (where) I know I’m making a dif - working conditions are like.” employers must follow if they do ference.” Fair trade cuts out the middle - not want to provide insurance About 75 developing countries man, she said, explaining that the coverage of contraceptives and currently have fair trade co-opera - artisans and farmers are able to went on to suggest that the groups tives, and almost 50 of those receive a larger percentage of the could contract a third party to pro - countries are represented by prod - profit, reinvest in their business vide health insurance for their ucts at Around the World. and bring about more opportuni - employees, but they would need “The theme of our store is gifts ties within their community. to inform the insurance company from all over the world, so we try The store has benefited from the that they did not want the plan to to get things that are endemic to “steady foot traffic” of tourists in include contraceptive coverage the culture of that particular Old Town, said Evangely, whose that they find objectionable. region,” said Gerrit, noting that shop also is part of the Fair Trade The insurance companies, the Indian artisans are known for San Diego network and an ex - order said, could “separately noti - woodworking with brass inlay and hibitor at events, including the San fy petitioners’ employees that the that soapstone carvings and items Diego diocesan Church Ministers insurance company will provide constructed from recycled plastic Conference last September. cost-free contraceptive coverage, are commonly produced in Kenya. Many of the items sold at and that such coverage is not paid He said, “The idea is that when Around the World come with a tag CNS/Rahat Dar, EPA for by petitioners and is not pro - you pick up items in our store . . . with information about the group PAKISTAN CHRISTIANS — People carry a coffin March 28 after the vided through petitioners’ health it should be indicative of their of artisans who made them — and previous day’s suicide bomb attack at a park in Lahore, Pakistan. particular culture.” some even have the name of the Observers say the terrorist attack that killed more than 70 people in a plan.” Lahore park on Easter was not the first time Christians in the Islamic The Supreme Court’s order The shop’s inventory includes specific artist within that group. country have been targeted. The Asian church news portal also pointed out that the parties ucanews.com said this is largely because discriminatory laws, the state’s involved in this case may have patronage of militants groups, deep-rooted intolerance and chronic “other proposals along similar Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open ignorance give rise to incidents of persecution in Pakistan, “making it a lines,” but they should avoid every door. living hell for the minority Shia Muslims who, along with Christians, repeating what they mentioned in — Emily Dickinson Hindus and Ahmadis, became the prime target of Sunni extremists.” previous briefings.